On July 19, Dustin Poirier will face his longtime opponent Max Holloway in his farewell bout at UFC 318.
Holloway appears to be the ideal last opponent for the renowned lightweight Poirier. Although Poirier has prevailed in both of their previous bouts, they were both entertaining. In addition, the two MMA icons are among the most adored combatants in the history of the sport. It is the most logical thing in the world.
Nevertheless, it seems that Poirier had two more opponents in mind for his battle to retire.
While he is happy to meet Holloway again, he revealed to MMA Junkie that he also asked the UFC for a tie-breaking trilogy with Justin Gaethje, as well as a scrap with former featherweight king Ilia Topuria.
“I was asking Hunter [Campbell] for Gaethje, because we’re 1-1 I wanted to close out that trilogy,” Poirier said. “For some reason they really wanted this fight [with Holloway]. That’s cool because I respect [Holloway] for my last fight.
“When [Topuria] said he was going to 155 [pounds], I texted the UFC and said ‘hey, let me know what’s going on with this guy,’” Poirier added. “But they never entertained it, they told me it’s not happening and they wanted Max.”
The Gaethje fight made sense for Poirier, as we discussed. Gaethje defeated Poirier with head-kick KO in their second fight, whereas Poirier prevailed via TKO in their first. Both bouts were exciting. There have always been the makings of a trilogy.
Though he never lost the championship, Topuria is no longer the UFC featherweight champion. He defeated featherweight icon Alexander Volkanovski to win the title early last year. After that, he successfully defended the title by knocking out Holloway, who had never been stopped by a punch before, not even in two bouts with the formidable knockout puncher Poirier. Following his victory over Holloway, Topuria declared his intention to advance to lightweight. Although his first bout in the category has not yet been finalized, Holloway and Poirier are out of the question, thus it appears that he will face champion Islam Makhachev next.
SHARE
