Former interim UFC lightweight champion Dustin Poirier will make the walk to the octagon a final time at UFC 318 on July 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. “The Diamond” takes on former featherweight champion and BMF titleholder Max Holloway in a trilogy fight.
Poirier and Holloway first fought at UFC 143 in February 2012 in the featherweight division. It was Holloway’s octagon debut. Poirier defeated the Hawaiian via submission in the first round.
Their paths crossed again seven years later at UFC 236 in April 2019 for the interim lightweight title. The rematch went the distance with Poirier defeating Holloway for a second time. UFC matchmakers lined up the trilogy bout with the BMF belt on the line for Poirier’s swan song but Poirier was eying a different opponent.
“(Holloway) wasn’t even a name I mentioned to them before we started talking about this fight coming together, this location, this retirement fight. I had thrown out other names,” Poirier said during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje were the names Poirier pitched to the fight promotion. “I thought me and Gaethje would close the trilogy, maybe,” Poirier said.
“This has been going on for so long that Gaethje was matched up with Dan Hooker at the time that this really started taking place. He wasn’t an option at the time.”
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If Poirier had his choice, he’d be facing Gaethje in New Orleans on July 19, but a trilogy bout against Holloway is worthy of the occasion.
“Max is great. I was his first fight in the UFC. He’s my last… It’s just cool with a full circle moment like this with me and Max,” Poirier said. “We fought at the beginning on his UFC career. We fought in the middle of his run and now fighting him at the end of my career. It’s kind of cool.
“But closing the trilogy out with Gaethje means something to me too. But thinking about what he said in that interview, like, ‘our families don’t deserve this.’ Anytime me and this guy fight, it’s going to be a head-on-collision. Somebody is getting hurt, or both of us are getting hurt,” continued Poirier. “We can fight 100 times, that’s 100 hospital trips for sure.
“I’m not saying the Max fight won’t be a war because the last one definitely was. But Gaethje said he was okay closing this thing out one and one, and the more I’m removed from that fight being an option, the more I’m okay with it too.”
