Max Holloway’s win at UFC 318 over Dustin Poirier seems to be his solely struggle of 2025.
“Blessed” spoiled Poirier’s retirement and retained the BMF title with a unanimous choice victory in the primary occasion of the promotion’s latest pay-per-view occasion. With the win, the fantasy matchmakers have thrown out a slew of enjoyable concepts for Holloway’s subsequent matchup, however in line with the previous featherweight titleholder, his subsequent struggle doubtless gained’t be till a while in 2026 attributable to a hand damage suffered within the struggle.
“I see lots of people speaking about who’s subsequent, who’s this, there’s numerous enjoyable fights for me at [lightweight],” Holloway stated on his YouTube channel. “There’s [Charles Oliveira], if [Justin Gaethje] will get the subsequent title shot, that might be cool. If I get the subsequent title shot, that’d be sick, however when you have hopes of me preventing earlier than the top of the yr, most likely not going to occur.
“I see a specialist someday [soon], I already met with my physician, now I bought to go meet the specialist, however issues usually are not trying to up for me preventing yet another time this yr. So all of that struggle speak is on nonetheless, so we simply get to see how the [lightweight division] goes to pan out.”
Previous to his victory over Poirier, Holloway was stopped through strikes for the primary time in his profession by the now light-weight champion Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 this previous October. Topuria vacated the 145-pound belt after stopping Holloway, after which brutally knocked out Charles Oliveira in the primary occasion of UFC 317 in June to seize his second title.
Topuria’s subsequent opponent has not been introduced. The names that appear to be in play among the many fan base for “El Matador” are Arman Tsarukyan, Paddy Pimblett, and Justin Gaethje.
Holloway is questioning why extra folks aren’t placing his identify within the dialog, particularly with Gaethje’s identify within the combine, who Holloway knocked out at UFC 300 in vicious trend.
“I get to be a fan a little bit bit,” Holloway defined. “[I get to] be a father. … I’m excited for the longer term, however what’s subsequent? I couldn’t let you know. Now this silly damage pushed me again a little bit bit, so we don’t know what’s going to occur.
“However even when I didn’t have this damage, the talks is wild. On the finish of the day [fans are saying]… lots of people are saying me and Ilia don’t make sense as a result of my final struggle earlier than this one was Ilia, and he did what he did to me, proper? However then how do you make a case for somebody that I fought — I do know he didn’t struggle Ilia, however I fought him — I did what I did to him, and he’s going to struggle subsequent for the title after simply profitable one [fight]. As a result of most of you guys don’t know what you’re speaking about. Most of you guys don’t know shit about preventing.”
