Max Holloway Believes Win Over Dustin Poirier Puts Him in Title Contention

Max Holloway is looking to beat Dustin Poirier and fight the winner of Topuria vs Oliveira 👀

“I got history with both [Ilia and Charles]… if I get a statement win, who’s to say your boy won’t fight for the title at the end of the year.”

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🎥 @BlessedMMApic.twitter.com/XnDiUHEz1W

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 13, 2025

Max Holloway believes a win over Dustin Poirier immediately puts him in the lightweight title mix. 

Holloway will be Poirier’s retirement fight at UFC 318 on July 19 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Blessed” believes it might be a sad retirement for Poirier, as he wants to beat the Louisiana native in front of his home crowd. 

Holloway notes that while this is Poirier’s last walk to the Octagon, “The Diamond” is fresh off his third bid for lightweight gold. Holloway himself is coming off a featherweight title attempt and considers himself up for contention at lightweight if he beats Poirier. Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira will fight for the vacant lightweight title at UFC 317 on June 28 in Las Vegas. Holloway believes he’ll be a good matchup against the winner of that fight, considering he has history with both. However, Holloway isn’t looking past Poirier yet.

“I know Poirier’s trying to ride into the sunset. He can do that, but it might be a little sad. Because I want to go out there and get my hand raised… His last fight was for the title, I stood at title contention in my mind. A couple of weeks before us there is a title fight at 155 [pounds]. And I got history with both men. So I go out there, I do my thing, I make a statement, I get a statement win — who’s to say your boy’s not fighting for a 155 udisputed title at the end of the year. First things first it’s Dustin Poirier, I’m not looking over him.”

Holloway beat Oliveira via technical knockout back in 2015. And the former featherweight champ was knocked out for the first time in his career by Topuria in his last outing at UFC 308 in October 2024. The Hawaiian was riding a three-fight winning streak before that, including an iconic knockout win over Justin Gaethje to establish himself as a contender at lightweight. Meanwhile, Poirier has consistently been in the lightweight title picture but never achieved gold, most recently being denied by Islam Makhachev last year.