Daniel Cormier still sees a path to UFC lightweight gold for Max Holloway.
Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) was knocked out by Ilia Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in their featherweight title fight at UFC 308, marking the first time Holloway was stopped by strikes.
Now Holloway will look to rebound when he defends his BMF title against retiring Dustin Poirier (30-9 MMA, 22-8 UFC) in a trilogy bout, which headlines Saturday’s UFC 318 event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
“Max is as good as they come, and he’s motivated to hold on to that BMF championship,” Cormier told MMA Junkie. “You’ve got to make sure you’re locked in if you want to get a victory in those situations. Always. It’s even more than Max knows Dustin is done. Dustin is going to walk away from fighting, and Max still has to be here. He wants to get a victory over Dustin as Dustin retires because he’s got to deal with everything that MMA entails.”
Prior to the Topuria loss, Holloway scored an iconic knockout of Justin Gaethje in his return to lightweight at UFC 300. This time, Holloway looked like a much more natural 155-pounder than he did when he lost to Poirier on short notice for the interim title at UFC 236.
Holloway is eyeing a rematch with newly crowned UFC lightweight champion Topuria, and Cormier sees that as enough of a motivator for “Blessed” to get back on track.
“If he’s anything like the last time we saw him at 155, he’s one of the best in the world,” Cormier said of Holloway. “The first time he fought he was like, ‘I have a spare tire, I was gaining weight just to fight.’ When we saw him against Justin he had not looked like that same guy. He had looked like a 155 pounder.
“Now his diet matches everything he needs in order to become a world champ. Because that’s exactly what his eyes are set on. He’s not thinking, ‘Just go win this fight.’ You hear the stuff he’s saying about Ilia. That loss did not deter him. He still wants to get back in there with Topuria and try to make that right.”
Holloway took aim at Topuria’s recent run, which saw him knock out Alexander Volkanovski, Holloway, and most recently Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. Cormier explains why he slightly agrees with Holloway downplaying the win streak.
“With the history, I think he’s closer to getting that fight,” Cormier said. “All those things he said (about Topuria’s winning streak) were true. Everything he stated was fact. Problem is, Ilia still did that. You’ve got to give him credit for what he did.
“That was amazing to watch him do what he did over the course of those three fights and we have to really tip our cap to the champion. Max Holloway wants that fight again, and we’ll have to see how long it is before he gets that opportunity.”
