Winning is one thing, but MMA fans want splash, pizazz and highlight reel knockouts along with their champions. Kamaru Usman has learned this the hard way, as he’s been slowly pushing his way to the top with clinical, sometimes boring victories, now finally allowing his personality to flourish in the face of a supervillain like Covington.

“Put some respect on my name,” yelled Usman at UFC 258 after beating Gilbert Burns in February, but it wasn’t until he beat Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal and Covington in grudge matches that UFC president Dana White and the rest started treating him like MMA royalty.

Usman has clearly figured out by now that it’s not just personality, its beating personalities, that makes you famous outside the Octagon.

McGregor had his rival, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and we all know how that ended. The anticlimactic ending to the sport’s greatest rivalry, between “The Notorious” and “The Eagle” fizzling out left an interesting vacuum for McGregor to fill, given he works best as an antagonist, the court jester to the strait-laced opponent, waxing poetic into a hot mic, spitting vitriol a mile a minute.

UFC 264: McGregor snaps leg, Poirier gets doctor stoppage

Enter Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira, the lightweight champion, and a date with destiny for Poirier, who has never lost consecutive bouts, this weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

There’s a few diehard UFC purist fans out there who still feel this is Nurmagomedov’s belt, and his ghost looms large over the division, but Poirier beating Oliveira, who won the vacated belt over Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May, may vault “Diamond” into the stratosphere if he can do it with some flash.

Oliveira is as sneaky as he is cunning, a technically proficient fighter who strikes as much as he stalks, courting punches, trading blows until he’s on your back choking you out. Poirier dispatching with a foe like this would force the UFC brass and its fans to put some respect on the Lafayette, Louisiana native’s name along with his signature brand of Cajun hot sauce.

The win would also force Poirier into some interesting conversations. Right now he sits fifth in the UFC’s pound for pound rankings, meaning the only fighters above him are heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, Adesanya, Volkanovski and of course, Usman at the top. All of them have belts, and Poirier would have his, a title he’s been gunning for his entire career.

He has held the belt – technically – winning the interim lightweight crown after beating Max Holloway at UFC 236 in April of 2019, however he would then be snuffed out in convincing fashion by Nurmagomedov in a reunification bout. Talk to any fighter and the thought of holding a place holder title like this, and then losing it, might have well been a loss in the first place.

Poirier’s career looked like it may have been defined by McGregor, but he has ascended up the ladder by remaining relevant, and quite frankly, being really tough to beat. His last eight fights, after being disqualified for illegal knees against Eddie Alvarez, is an impressive resume unto itself, with victories over the likes of Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje and Alvarez in a rematch.

Now he’s headlining a card without McGregor, for a belt that still doesn’t feel like it’s been unified yet. Oliveira would love nothing more to dispose of Poirier and vault himself up the pound for pound ladder from eighth and solidify himself as the rightful heir to Nurmagomedov’s reign.

Poirier’s blue collar ways haven’t been enough to launch him into the UFC stardom stratosphere, but beating McGregor, twice, and then following that up by grabbing the belt from Oliveira, would be impossible to ignore. Poirier stands on the doorstep of superstar status, the question is, can he knock it down this weekend in Las Vegas and make this house his own?