Dustin Poirier’s final fight is set for July 19 at UFC 318 in New Orleans against Max Holloway.
After his submission loss to Islam Makhachev, Poirier expressed his desire for one last bout in his home state of Louisiana. Poirier has fallen short in title fights against Khabib Nurmagomedov, Charles Oliveira, and Makhachev. He also missed out on the BMF title after a KO loss to Justin Gaethje. Dustin has beaten Holloway twice before, and with Holloway holding the BMF belt despite a recent featherweight title loss to Ilia Topuria, Dustin has a chance to finish his career on a high note. Poirier also revealed he had two other opponents in mind: Gaethje and Topuria. However, the UFC shut down those suggestions.
“It’s going to be my final fight. I’m going to lay the gloves down in Louisiana where it all started for me. The whole journey started there, and I’m just honored to have the UFC on the same page and the state of Louisiana on the same page to make all this work. I didn’t know if it was going to all come together, but it did,” Poirier said
“I was asking for Gaethje. I was asking Hunter (Campbell) and the UFC for Gaethje, because we’re 1-1 and I want 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 for my last fight.’ I don’t know what their thought process was for putting this together with me and Max, but I have a lot of respect for him, so it makes a lot of sense for me. I said legends only. Definitely fits that.
“Not once (did they offer Topuria). When he said he was going to 155, I messaged Hunter and the UFC and I said, ‘Hey, what’s up? Let me know what’s going on with this guy now that he’s at ’55.’ But they never entertained it. They told me it’s not happening and they wanted Max,” Poirier said