Former paratrooper Benoit Saint Denis is preparing for the biggest fight of his career against Dustin Poirier at UFC 299, four years after being spotted at a local gym tryout by veteran coach Daniel Woirin.
Benoit Saint Denis, fresh outta the army, strolled into a local French MMA gym for a tryout. Daniel Woirin, a seasoned coach, spotted his potential right away.
Fast forward four years, and Saint Denis is on the brink of fame. He’s prepping for the fight of his life against Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 on March 9.
Saint Denis was a paratrooper for the French special forces when he fell head over heels for MMA. At the time, MMA was a no-go in France. But Venum, an apparel brand, launched an MMA team in France, led by Woirin. This was the golden ticket Saint Denis needed to kick-start his journey.
“Benoit is incredible,” Woirin gushed on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast. “He started from scratch with me. He only had experience in jiu-jitsu with Christophe Savoca and judo, and that’s it. I saw him train with pros, guys with 15 or 20 pro fights, and saw him go toe-to-toe with them. I was taken aback.”
Venum planned to select four fighters. But Woirin convinced them to sponsor Saint Denis as a fifth. He was worth it. Morgan Charriere, who’s 1-0 in the UFC and set to face Seung Woo Choi on April 6, was also part of that group. Unlike Saint Denis, Charriere had previous MMA experience.
Woirin was considering hanging up his MMA coaching gloves before Venum came calling. He’d coached some of the world’s best, like Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson. But the pay wasn’t cutting it.
“I had a lot of experience, it was fun, but I have bills to pay,” Woirin admitted. “I was broke when I returned to France from the U.S., then I went to Ukraine to work with Roman Dolidze and Serghei Spivac. Then Venum called, and two and a half years later, Saint Denis is in the UFC, fighting Dustin Poirier. It’s amazing. It’s also gratifying because I suffered through the MMA boycott in France, and now they all know me because of Benoit.”
The journey was tough. Woirin felt the French martial arts community turned their backs on him when he left to build a career in Brazil and the U.S. Watching Saint Denis lose to Elizeu Zaleski in his UFC debut didn’t help.
Saint Denis was a natural lightweight with eight pro wins, all by stoppage, when he got the call to face Zaleski at welterweight. A one-sided 15-minute beatdown followed.
“I was heavily criticized after that fight because I didn’t throw in the towel,” Woirin confessed. “In fact, I’ll never throw in the towel. I thought the ref was going to stop the fight, but Benoit survived and came back in the third. It was incredible. I had many problems back in France for that. I was threatened, even, but it happens. I don’t care. I received death threats. People are crazy, right? Fans are kind of crazy. I received a lot of threats and criticism, but I couldn’t care less. It was a tough fight but he gained a lot of respect for that, everybody knows him now.”
Saint Denis bounced back to 155 pounds and secured his first UFC victory with a rear-naked choke submission of Niklas Stolze in June 2022. He then finished Gabriel Miranda, Ismael Bonfim, Thiago Moises, and Matt Frevola in 14 months to set up the Poirier fight. Neither Saint Denis nor Woirin saw it coming.
“I’ll tell you the truth, we didn’t even know [about the fight],” Woirin said. “I woke up and saw that Benoit was going to fight Poirier, but [the UFC] didn’t talk to anyone. Benoit didn’t know either. The fight was announced before it was agreed. People said that has happened in the past with Dana White. Benoit was sleeping when news broke. His wife woke him up saying, ‘Hey, you’re fighting Poirier.’”
“We were surprised because Poirier is the No. 3 [ranked lightweight],” he continued. “I thought they were going to give us [Beneil] Dariush or Dan Hooker, but we were very happy when we saw it was Poirier because we love challenges. We respect him, but we’re going there to win. We respect the legend, but we’re preparing him to beat Poirier.”
Saint Denis has five straight finishes and has earned three performance bonuses in just under two years. Poirier, a former interim champion, enters UFC 299 off a loss to Justin Gaethje, a man he has previously knocked out. Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez, and Anthony Pettis have also lost to Poirier in the past.
“The secret for Benoit [against Poirier] is that he’s younger and hungrier,” Woirin said. “We know Poirier has been in the game for a while, he’s 34, and that takes a toll on the body. Not just the fights but the camps, motivation, knowing you’re financially secure. Benoit is hungrier, but we’re careful because he’s a champion.”
As for the matchup, Woirin feels his protege has more weapons than Poirier on the feet with his Muay Thai experience, even though he gives Poirier the nod in the boxing realm.
“It’s going to be a hard 25-minute fight,” Woirin said. “Poirier takes a lot of damage but he doesn’t stop. I think it’s a good matchup for Benoit because the division is starting to get older, but we never underestimate anyone. … It’s going to be a violent fight. I can’t say who will win because we don’t know that, but I can say it’s going to be violent. Benoit is fighting a high-level guy.”
Woirin is proud to take a man from 0-0 to the top of the world. For him, winning a UFC title with Saint Denis would be the greatest achievement of his career, even bigger than coaching legends like Silva and Henderson in championship bouts.
“You take a guy from zero in the toughest division in the UFC and [he] wins the belt? I can stop coaching after that. The cycle is complete,” Woirin said. “I’ve been in the fight game for a long time, and to come back from nowhere with Benoit, just like that, would be incredible. And we believe it can happen because he’s young. I hope that happens.”