The UFC is heading to New Orleans on July 19th and one of the most popular fighters in the sport is getting a retirement fight in front of his home crowd. Today on The Pat McAfee Show, Dustin Poirier (30-9) announced that the final fight of his career will take place at UFC 318 in New Orleans against Max Holloway (26-8).
The trilogy bout will be for the BMF title and it will end a legendary career for The Diamond. Starting with Poirier, he hasn’t fought since his lightweight title loss to Islam Makhachev last June. Following that loss, Poirier admitted that he wasn’t sure whether or not he’d fight again. However, he made it clear in recent months that he wanted one more and he’s getting that in front of his city.
Standing across from him will be Max Holloway. Like Poirier, Holloway is coming off a title loss in his last bout. Last October, Holloway lost to Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title and afterwards he made it clear that he wanted to move up to lightweight. Holloway fought Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 for the BMF title and knocked out Gaethje in the fifth round.
As mentioned, this is a trilogy bout with Poirier winning the first two fights. Despite Poirier winning the first two fights, the consensus seems to be that Holloway will be the betting favorite in htis one.