Max Holloway continues to tease a return to lightweight waters.
Hawaii’s finest has established himself as one of the very best featherweights of all-time. Since 2013, Holloway, 31, has only lost in UFC title fights, falling short against Alexander Volkanovski and Dustin Poirier.
Holloway’s Poirier rematch was a unique one that saw “Blessed” return to lightweight for the first time since his fourth career bout in 2011 and do so on short notice for interim gold. Coincidentally, Holloway’s UFC debut was his fifth professional fight, which came against Poirier. Unfortunately for the legend, Holloway was unable to overcome “The Diamond,” first by first-round triangle armbar and secondly by unanimous decision. While still a near-flawless force at 145 pounds, Holloway (24-7) is in a limbo-like position with three losses to the current champion Volkanovski.
Poirier rematches Justin Gaethje at UFC 291 this Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Utah, providing Holloway with a potential window he could see open for his lightweight return.
“It’s for the BMF belt. If you make any fight for the BMF belt, this the fight,” Holloway said of Poirier vs. Gaethje 2 on his YouTube channel. “I wanna throw my name out in that hat sooner or later now that the BMF belt is around 155. That would be cool. I would love to fight either of these guys just for fan purposes. This is a fan fight. This is a huge fight, bro. A cool fight.
“I’m glad that these guys have the opportunity to win the BMF belt. These guys are studs.”
Holloway has still held the aura of a champion without a title in the featherweight division since his second and third defeats to Volkanovski. In his three last wins over Arnold Allen, Yair Rodriguez, and Calvin Kattar, “Blessed” has arguably been better than ever, making the thought of him in the lightweight mix a thrilling one for fight fans.
No matter who the opponent is, any pairing with Poirier, Gaethje, and Holloway is likely to be action-packed. All three realize their entertainment value, and for Holloway, he feels the deciding factor in this big upcoming rematch will be durability.
“One guy’s got two wins over me, shaped my damn head, and the other guy almost exposed me to the world,” Holloway said. “This fight right here to me is — whoever wins this fight is the person who’s going to simply take the more damage, who simply can last longer than the other. These two guys, I mean, this is fight of the year written all over it, bro. If you want a fight-of-the-year contender, this is a fight right here that is a fight of the year.
“Dustin with his boxing, Gaethje with his boxing. Bro, Gaethje just makes any fight crazy. He makes any fight just absolutely insane, a dog fight, a warrior fight, whatever you want to call it, Gaethje just makes it an ugly messy fight. At the end of the day, Dustin Poirier’s Dustin Poirier, bro. He had the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows in the sport. They both did. I think this fight is gonna be crazy.”
Recap. The Ultimate Fighter 31: Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler Episode 9 results
Roundtable. Is Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje 2 a lock to be Fight of the Year? Plus more
BMFs. Matt Brown: Justin Gaethje ‘fighting for a little bit more’ than Dustin Poirier in UFC 291 rematch
Scary. NAC: Vicente Luque cleared to fight after suffering brain bleed in Geoff Neal knockout loss
Banter. Alex Pereira responds to Daniel Cormier, dismisses concern about UFC 291 turnaround: ‘Everything I did was perfect’
Legend. Jon Jones issues message to fans on now-deleted tweets, writes ‘everyone’s the next big thing until I beat them’
Crossover. Phil de Fries calls for fight with Francis Ngannou when he returns to MMA: ‘If not me, who else?’
Power. Jan Blachowicz hopes for title shot against Jiri Prochazka that will be ‘the biggest fight in Europe’s history’
Comeback. Joe Rogan, Chael Sonnen return to broadcast team for UFC 291
TUF Hang – TUF 31: Ep. 9.
Embedded 2.
Blachowicz vs. Pereira preview.
Top finishes from UFC 291 fighters.
The streak.
Cruz on Poirier vs. Gaethje 2.
Volk’s 291 picks.
The War Room: UFC 291.
What have we done?
Tom is unintentionally hilarious.
Crazy.
UFC 291 will be Dustin Poirier’s #12 UFC main event. Only 10 fighters have headlined for the promotion on more occasions.
One of the most reliable fighters the promotion has ever had. pic.twitter.com/0fYRkeg63D
— Andy Hickey MMA (@AndyHickeyMMA) July 25, 2023
Art.
Nashville.
The Reaper rebound.
“It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count, it’s how many times you get back up.”
I’ve always come back stronger from a loss pic.twitter.com/iwBnmQOdFe
— Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) July 25, 2023
A CCC breakdown.
Only Paulo.
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292.
The Rat.
Johnny Eblenberg.
Truth?
Didn’t turn out very well.
Cerrone-Tate.
Woodshop.
Reminder.
England.
Tofiq.
Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza (15-2) vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (24-11); Super RIZIN 2, July 29
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (35-6) vs. Chihiro Suzuki (10-3); Super RIZIN 2, July 29
Nasrat Haqparast (14-5) vs. Sam Patterson (10-2-1); UFC Paris, Sept. 2
Jamie Mullarkey (16-6) vs. John Makdessi (18-8); UFC 293, Sept. 9
Holloway vs. Gaethje is chaos that I eventually need in my life. Please and thank you, MMA gods.
Thanks for reading!
Poll
Which fight would you prefer for Holloway at lightweight?
86%
Justin Gaethje
(244 votes)
13%
Dustin Poirier 3
(38 votes)
282 votes total
Vote Now
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