Dustin Poirier wanted Justin Gaethje trilogy bout | MMA News
Former interim UFC light-weight champion Dustin Poirier will make the stroll to the octagon a closing time at UFC 318 on July 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. “The Diamond” takes on former featherweight champion and BMF titleholder Max Holloway in a trilogy struggle.
Poirier and Holloway first fought at UFC 143 in February 2012 within the featherweight division. It was Holloway’s octagon debut. Poirier defeated the Hawaiian through submission within the first spherical.
Their paths crossed again seven years later at UFC 236 in April 2019 for the interim light-weight title. The rematch went the space with Poirier defeating Holloway for a second time. UFC matchmakers lined up the trilogy bout with the BMF belt on the road for Poirier’s swan tune however Poirier was eying a totally different opponent.
“(Holloway) wasn’t even a name I mentioned to them before we started talking about this fight coming together, this location, this retirement fight. I had thrown out other names,” Poirier stated during an look on The Ariel Helwani Show.
Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje have been the names Poirier pitched to the struggle promotion. “I thought me and Gaethje would close the trilogy, maybe,” Poirier stated.
“This has been going on for so long that Gaethje was matched up with Dan Hooker at the time that this really started taking place. He wasn’t an option at the time.”
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If Poirier had his alternative, he’d be going through Gaethje in New Orleans on July 19, however a trilogy bout in opposition to Holloway is worthy of the event.
“Max is great. I was his first fight in the UFC. He’s my last… It’s just cool with a full circle moment like this with me and Max,” Poirier stated. “We fought at the beginning on his UFC career. We fought in the middle of his run and now fighting him at the end of my career. It’s kind of cool.
“But closing the trilogy out with Gaethje means one thing to me too. But interested by what he stated in that interview, like, ‘our households do not deserve this.’ Anytime me and this man struggle, it may be a head-on-collision. Somebody is getting damage, or each of us are getting damage,” continued Poirier. “We can struggle 100 occasions, that is 100 hospital journeys for sure.
“I’m not saying the Max fight won’t be a war because the last one definitely was. But Gaethje said he was okay closing this thing out one and one, and the more I’m removed from that fight being an option, the more I’m okay with it too.”
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