"I'm gonna stand in the middle and trade" - Dustin Poirier vows all-out war with Max Holloway in emotional final fight at UFC 318

Former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier has recently shared his thoughts about his upcoming retirement fight against Max Holloway at UFC 318 for the BMF title.

'The Diamond' will make his final walk to the UFC octagon on July 19, headlining the UFC 318 card against reigning BMF champion Holloway. This will be the third meeting between the two, as they have previously fought at UFC 143 and UFC 236 for the interim lightweight strap. Poirier got the better of Holloway on both occasions, winning by first-round submission in the first fight, and by decision in the second.

During an interview with MMA Junkie, a reporter asked Poirier if he would prefer to knock the Hawaiian out in the first-round and take negligible damage in the process. The 36-year-old responded by expressing his desire to trade blows with 'Blessed' in the middle of the octagon, in "true knucklehead fashion."

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"That would be nice, get in, retire clean, go home with no stitches for my daughter. But in true knucklehead fashion, I'm going to stand in the middle and trade with Max and we're gonna bleed and put on a show for the last one."

Poirier also shared that he initially wanted to settle the score with Justin Gaethje in his final fight but UFC matchmaker Hunter Campbell was keen on a fight against Holloway.

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"I was asking Hunter in the UFC for Gaetjhe because we're one-and-one, I wanted to close out that trilogy. For some reason they really wanted this fight [against Holloway] so I said okay, that's cool because I respect the guy from my last fight. I don't know what their thought process was of putting this together for me and Max but I have a lot of respect for him so it made sense to me."

Check out Dustin Poirier's comments below (6:25 and 0:51):

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