Published April 18, 2021, 3:56 PM
UFC lightweight star Dustin Poirier (left) and Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao (right) have joined forces to donate in Justin Wren’s Fight for the Forgotten initiative for the homeless Batwa Pygmies in Uganda. (Photos from Manny Pacquiao’s Instagram, AFP, and Fight for the Forgotten)
Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and UFC lightweight star Dustin Poirier have joined forces to provide a helping hand for the Batwa Pygmies in Uganda.
Through their respective charity groups, the Manny Pacquiao Foundation and The Good Fight Foundation, Pacquiao and Poirier have pledged $50,000 each for the construction of 32 two-bedroom homes for the Pygmies on land brokered by the Fight for the Forgotten, ran by Justin Wren, an American humanitarian and philanthropist who also fights in the heavyweight division of Bellator MMA.
Photo via Fight For The Forgotten
Former UFC and Bellator heavyweight Justin Wren ripped Conor McGregor for not following through on his donation to Dustin Poirier’s charity.
Wren competed in MMA between 2006 and 2017 with one appearance in the UFC and three outings in Bellator. However, he did not compete at all between 2010 and 2015, as during that time Wren founded the “Fight For The Forgotten” where he traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help the Mbuti pygmy people build shelter and get fresh water. Wren’s charity work has been praised throughout the MMA community and he even co-wrote a book with MMA journalist Loretta Hunt titled “The Fight For The Forgotten: How a Mixed Martial Artist Stopped Fighting for Himself and Started Fighting for Others” in 2015.
Earlier this year, Bellator MMA, along with the support of Viacom, continued its embarkment on a series of “power moves” to close the distance with its rival, the UFC, and to quiet those who refer to the company as “the other guys.”
These moves began with the pursuit of free agents. Last year, it with Phil Davis. More recently, it has been Benson Henderson and Matt Mitrione.
Henderson, a former UFC lightweight champion and decorated fighter in two divisions, was a big initial step for Bellator head Scott Coker and his regime. Henderson decided to test free agency, an occurrence that is becoming more frequent as fighters attempt to find out their true worth. It’s also an occurrence that was previously unheard of in MMA. A UFC fighter had, up to this point, almost always re-signed with the promotion. It was a safe move in an industry where cash isn’t exactly flowing into a fighter’s pocket.
The story of Justin Wren has been well documented. His work with the Pygmy people of the Congo has reinvigorated his life, as well as his career as a fighter. And for his second fight since returning to mixed martial arts, he now has even more motivation. His close friend from the Congo, whom Justin has worked tirelessly with in his selfless efforts to give a voice to the Pygmy people, is in Houston for his fight.
“It’s the most motivation I’ve ever had for a fight, without a doubt,” Wren told Combat Press. “An hour and a half ago, I was at the airport picking him up. It’s his first time inside the United States. Now he’s here for the fight, able to be ringside and I get to have him backstage while I’m warming up and everything else.
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For a few tense seconds, Dustin Poirier had the undisputed UFC lightweight title in his sights.
Poirier’s guillotine choke had champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in trouble in the second round of their UFC 242 title unifier in September 2019. What happened in the middle of that sequence perhaps left the former interim champ with a lifetime of what-ifs.
“I just know how close it was,” Poirier told Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “A game of inches, and I know how close it was. What haunts me more than [not pulling] full guard is me not switching to a D’Arce or anaconda [choke] when he rolled to his side.”