{"id":7906,"date":"2025-07-20T07:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T07:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7906\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T07:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T07:39:07","slug":"ufc-318-max-holloway-retains-bmf-title-as-dustin-poirier-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/7906\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 318: Max Holloway retains BMF title as Dustin Poirier retires"},"content":{"rendered":"

The action continued to go back and forth – Holloway landed longer combinations but Poirier’s strikes appeared more damaging – before the crowd rose to their feet in anticipation of the final round.<\/p>\n

With 10 seconds to go Holloway pointed to the ground in trademark fashion, inviting the pair to stand and trade.<\/p>\n

Holloway knocked Justin Gaethje out<\/a> in similar fashion last year and, although he got the better of the exciting exchange, Poirier survived until the final bell.<\/p>\n

The pair embraced in respect as Holloway kissed Poirier on the forehead before sharing a few words.<\/p>\n

“Max is tough to deal with in here. He’s slick; he’s crafty; he’s fast; he’s the champ. I got nothing but respect for Max – he’s one of the good guys,” said Poirier.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been chasing my dreams – it’s been incredible. I’m a kid living his dream out here, throwing punches, throwing knees. It’s incredible.”<\/p>\n

Poirier’s win over Holloway in 2019 for the interim lightweight belt remains the only UFC championship he won.<\/p>\n

He lost three undisputed title fights – against Khabib Nurmagomedov, Charles Oliveira and Makhachev – but retires with a glittering resume regardless.<\/p>\n

He got the better of his trilogy with Conor McGregor – he is the only fighter to knock him out, in 2021 – and has iconic victories over Dan Hooker, Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The action continued to go back and forth – Holloway landed longer combinations but Poirier’s strikes appeared more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-7906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906","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=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}