{"id":43290,"date":"2025-08-04T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43290\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T17:14:12","slug":"max-holloway-confirms-spell-on-sidelines-after-stupid-injury-in-dustin-poirier-ufc-318-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43290\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Holloway confirms spell on sidelines after \u2018stupid injury\u2019 in Dustin Poirier UFC 318 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Holloway has declared he is unlikely to fight again in the UFC this year.<\/p>\n

Holloway spoiled Dustin Poirier\u2019s retirement party<\/a> at UFC 318 last month to retain his BMF title<\/a>, but has since confirmed he suffered a ‘stupid injury’ in the fight.<\/p>\n

\"'Blessed'<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

‘Blessed’ retained the BMF title at UFC 318 on July 19Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Having been knocked out by Ilia Topuria<\/a> in a featherweight title bout at UFC 308 in October, Holloway was back to his best against Poirier, outpointing ‘The Diamond’ on his move back up to lightweight.<\/p>\n

The win brought Holloway back into the title picture at lightweight, with ‘Blessed’ now eager to exact revenge against the Georgian-born Spanish fighter, who was crowned the king at 155 lbs after defeating Charles Oliveira<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n

However, Holloway’s plans for a quick turnaround have now been hampered, as he confirmed an injury to his right hand in his first interview since defeating Poirier.<\/p>\n

Max Holloway confirms injury from Dustin Poirier UFC 318 fight<\/p>\n

“Talk about him being as strong as a diamond, my right hand still hurts!” Holloway explained via his YouTube channel<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of people talking about who\u2019s next, who\u2019s this, there\u2019s a lot of fun fights for me at 155 lbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s [Charles] Oliveira, if Justin [Gaethje] gets the next title shot, that would be cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If I get the next title shot, that\u2019d be sick, but if you have hopes of me fighting before the end of the year, [that\u2019s] probably not going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll see a specialist sometime this week. I already met with my doctor, and now I’ve got to go meet the specialist, but things are not looking too up for me, [in terms of] fighting one more time this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo all of that fight talk is on still, so we just get to see how the 155 lb division is going to pan out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topuria became the UFC’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter<\/a> after he knocked out Oliveira<\/a> and is now gearing up for the first defence of his lightweight belt.<\/p>\n

\"Holloway<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Holloway outpointed Poirier after five rounds at UFC 318 in LouisianaCredit: Getty\"And<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

And it sounds like the win will be his first and only fight in 2025Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

The ex-featherweight champion has been linked to a fight with Paddy Pimblett<\/a>, Arman Tsarukyan<\/a>, or Justin Gaethje<\/a> next, although nothing has been made official yet.<\/p>\n

‘El Matador’ has insisted that he won’t defend the belt against Tsarukyan<\/a>, who he has labelled unworthy of the title shot, leaving Pimblett and Gaethje as the favourites.<\/p>\n

Holloway believes talks of him not being in the title scene are ‘wild,’ as it wasn’t long ago he finished Gaethje in a Knockout of the Year at UFC 300.<\/a><\/p>\n

“What\u2019s next? I couldn\u2019t tell you,” the 33-year-old from Hawaii added.<\/p>\n

“Now this stupid injury [has] pushed me back a little bit, so we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even if I didn\u2019t have this injury, the talks are wild\u2026 A lot of people are saying me [fighting] Ilia doesn\u2019t make sense, because my last fight before this one was [with] Ilia, and he did what he did to me.<\/p>\n

Ilia Topuria’s Next UFC Fight Options<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For the lightweight title<\/p>\n

Paddy PimblettMax HollowayJustin GaethjeArman Tsarukyan<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then how do you make a case for someone that I fought, [Gaethje] \u2014 I know he didn\u2019t fight Ilia, but I fought him \u2014 I did what I did to him, and he\u2019s going to fight next for the title after just winning one [fight].<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause most of you guys don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about. Most of you guys don\u2019t know s*** about fighting. At the end of the day, it is what it is, and we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s a wrench in our plans because of this injury, but whatever, we get to see the way it plays out now.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Holloway now likely out until the start of 2026, the UFC have an extra bit of breathing room when it comes to deciding Topuria’s next opponent.<\/p>\n

Gaethje has said that he will retire from MMA if he isn’t awarded a title shot next.<\/p>\n

However, UFC CEO Dana White may favour a bout between Topuria and Liverpudlian Pimblett due to the pair’s longtime rivalry.<\/p>\n

Max Holloway calls for radical UFC format change after retaining title in Dustin Poirier win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Holloway has declared he is unlikely to fight again in the UFC this year. Holloway spoiled Dustin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,37963,1394,786,1630,37964,1395,37965,37966,785,85,787,3878,1396],"class_list":["post-43290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blessed","tag-dustin-poirier","tag-fighting","tag-holloway","tag-holloway-injury","tag-max-holloway","tag-max-holloway-injured","tag-max-holloway-next-fight","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-318","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}