Written by Dustin Poirier | Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images
Dustin Poirier is happy to see Max Holloway in the cage again, but “Blessed” wasn’t his first choice.
The future UFC Hall of Famer announced Friday that he is set to headline UFC 318 on July 19 in a trilogy bout with Holloway, with Holloway’s “BMF” belt on the line. Poirier has twice fought Holloway, defeating him at UFC 143 in Holloway’s octagon debut and then again at UFC 236 to win an interim lightweight title.
As much as Poirier respects Holloway, there was another trilogy bout he had in mind.
“I was asking for [Justin] Gaethje,” Poirier told MMA Junkie. “I was asking [UFC CBO Hunter Campbell] and the UFC for Gaethje because we’re 1-1, I wanted to close out that trilogy. For some reason, they really wanted this fight, so I said, ‘OK, that’s cool’ because I respect the guy from my last fight. I don’t know what their thought process was putting this together for me and Max, but I have a lot of respect for him, so it made sense to me.
“I said, ‘Legends only.’ He definitely fits that.”
Poirier and Justin Gaethje are even in their series, with Poirier winning their first meeting in April 2018 and Gaethje later avenging that loss with a powerful head kick knockout at UFC 291. Their rematch was for a vacant “BMF” belt, which Holloway later won from Gaethje.
The veteran’s request to only fight legends seemed to line up perfectly with former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria changing his name to “La Leyenda” (“The Legend” in English), but Poirier says it was never an option for him to welcome Topuria to the lightweight division despite his interest.
“Actually, when he said he was going to ‘55, I texted Hunter, I texted UFC, I said, ‘Hey, what’s up? Let me know what’s going on with this guy now he’s at ‘55,” Poirier said. “But they never entertained it, they told me it’s not happening, and they wanted Max.”
With his second crack at the BMF belt, Poirier is excited to add another piece of hardware to his collection. In fact, he’s not only hoping to capture that title for the first time, he’s hoping he’s the last fighter to ever lay claim to it.
“If I can get my hand, be the last BMF champion and ride off into the sunset with the belt and retire, hey, that’s forever,” Poirier said. “Because I don’t think they would ever do it again unless something crazy happened. That would be dope.”
Even if Holloway wasn’t the ideal opponent, Poirier can’t argue with the location for his final fight: New Orleans in his home state of Louisiana.
It’s been 10 years since Poirier most recently fought near his native Lafayette and he’s grateful for the UFC accommodating his wish to have his final fight take place where his career began.
“This is the dream,” Poirier said. “This is the plan. I’m the one who reached out to the UFC and said, ‘Hey, I would love to retire at home. To my surprise, they obliged and said, ‘OK, we’ll do everything we can to make it happen.’ It’s amazing when a company works with you like that and has respect for you enough to try to put things in motion because so many things in their schedule is booked up for the whole year previously. People don’t understand how much goes on behind the scenes. These dates and locations are pre-planned for a long time. For them to scrap something and bring the cage to Louisiana and set it up for me to retire at home, it’s a dream come true.”