Max Holloway is looking to beat Dustin
Poirier and fight the winner of Topuria vs Oliveira 👀“I got history with both [Ilia and Charles]… if I get a statement
win, who’s to say your boy won’t fight for the title at the end of
the year.”Advertisement
🎥 @BlessedMMApic.twitter.com/XnDiUHEz1W
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
June 13, 2025
Max
Holloway believes a win over Dustin
Poirier immediately puts him in the lightweight title
mix.
Holloway will be Poirier’s retirement fight at
UFC 318 on July 19 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans,
Louisiana. “Blessed” believes it might be a sad retirement for
Poirier, as he wants to beat the Louisiana native in front of his
home crowd.
Holloway notes that while this is Poirier’s last walk to the
Octagon, “The Diamond” is fresh off his third bid for lightweight
gold. Holloway himself is coming off a featherweight title attempt
and considers himself up for contention at lightweight if he beats
Poirier. Ilia
Topuria and Charles
Oliveira will fight for the vacant lightweight title at
UFC
317 on June 28 in Las Vegas. Holloway believes he’ll be a good
matchup against the winner of that fight, considering he has
history with both. However, Holloway isn’t looking past Poirier
yet.
“I know Poirier’s trying to ride into the sunset. He can do that,
but it might be a little sad. Because I want to go out there and
get my hand raised… His last fight was for the title, I stood at
title contention in my mind. A couple of weeks before us there is a
title fight at 155 [pounds]. And I got history with both men. So I
go out there, I do my thing, I make a statement, I get a statement
win — who’s to say your boy’s not fighting for a 155 udisputed
title at the end of the year. First things first it’s Dustin
Poirier, I’m not looking over him.”
Holloway beat Oliveira via technical knockout back in 2015. And the
former featherweight champ was knocked out for the first time in
his career by Topuria in his last outing at UFC 308 in October
2024. The Hawaiian was riding a three-fight winning streak before
that, including an iconic knockout win over Justin
Gaethje to establish himself as a contender at lightweight.
Meanwhile, Poirier has consistently been in the lightweight title
picture but never achieved gold, most recently being denied by
Islam
Makhachev last year.