Poirier apologises to officer and airline staff over Father's Day airport arrest

Dustin Poirier has issued his first public apology following his arrest for public drunkenness at Atlanta Airport on Father’s Day, telling The Diary of a CEO podcast that he was entirely at fault and has since sought contact details for the officer who handled the situation.

Body cam footage released in the days after the incident showed the retired UFC interim lightweight champion acting erratically and threatening a police officer before eventually being taken into custody. Poirier says he still has not watched the video but has pieced together what happened through accounts from those around him.

“I do want to apologize to those desk agents, whoever they are, and the police for having to put up with me, man,” Poirier said. “I actually asked a lawyer in Atlanta, who I’ve been working with, if he can, please, give me that officer’s information, his address, if I can write him a letter, his cell phone if I can call him. Just to tell him how great of a job he did dealing with a person in that condition, and how professional he was. He was incredible. It could’ve been so much worse.”

Poirier speculated that a desk agent may have refused to let him board his flight after noticing he was intoxicated, which he believes could have triggered the confrontation. Towards the end of the body cam footage, he is seen dapping up the same officer he had been dealing with throughout the incident.

“What if it was a young, hot head cop who wanted to be a superstar… it could’ve been horrible,” Poirier said. “I could be sitting here facing serious charges. And just to put my wife and my children through that, just, it’s not good.”

Poirier also opened up about the emotional context behind the incident, revealing that thoughts of his estranged father — who he described as having lost relationships, marriages, and his home to alcohol — weighed heavily on him that day. “On Father’s Day, I was traveling to work, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about my father. I started drinking at the airport,” he said, before the source material cuts off.

Despite drawing a direct line between his father’s struggles and his own behaviour that day, Poirier was clear that the responsibility rested with him alone. The former title challenger had previously addressed the arrest briefly on social media, but the podcast appearance marked his first extended public comments on the episode.