UFC: Khabib raises US$100,000 for Dustin Poirier’s foundation; Dana White matches donation
- Lightweight champion sells his UFC 242 opponent’s T-shirt to raise huge sum for American’s charity
- UFC president Dana White keeps his word and donates another US$100,000 to the Good fight Foundation
Khabib Nurmagomedov has raised US$100,000 for Dustin Poirier’s charity by selling the American’s T-shirt after their fight at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi.
UFC president Dana White has also kept his promise from the post-event press conference and matched the donation, Poirier confirmed.
Khabib and “The Diamond” swapped shirts in an emotional show of respect after the Russian retained his lightweight title earlier this month. The undefeated Dagestani then vowed to sell Poirier’s shirt and raise money for the Good Fight Foundation.
“I had no clue he was gonna do that. He raised a lot of money. It was the biggest donation we’ve ever had with the foundation,” Poirier told Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN.
“We’re gonna do great things, he’s gonna help a lot of people out with his donation. It’s incredible to see fighters donate things, just the growth the foundation has had in the last year and a half. I’m really grateful, those things make me smile.
“Khabib donated US$100,000 dollars to the foundation. Yeah, I believe all from the shirt, I don’t know if he auctioned it off or had someone offer him it. I’m not sure, I haven’t had a chance to speak with him personally and thank him. He donated the money, it’s in the foundation account.”
Poirier’s foundation joined forces with the non-profit Fight for the Forgotten to help the Batwa pygmy children of Uganda after a recent torrential flood ruined the only clean source of water their village’s school and nearby orphanage had.
“We set a goal of US$25,000 for this camp, we overshot that by 7 or 8 thousand, for the original goal of building the well and the water tower for the pygmy people,” Poirier added to Helwani.
“I’m gonna hop on a call this week and talk more. We set an overflow goal of US$50,000 to build a few more water wells in neighbouring villages. We’ll see what we can to do to help. We demolished this goal we had.”
