Dustin Poirier planned to retire win, lose, or draw after UFC 318 was over, but he was admittedly a little disappointed with how his final fight against Max Holloway ended.
The five-round war was an instant classic with both fighters scoring knockdowns and a whopping 310 total strikes landed, but the result didn’t exactly seem like a back-and-forth battle. Two judges scored the fight 49-46 for Holloway with the third judge handing down a 48-47 scorecard for the incumbent “BMF” champion.
While Poirier doesn’t necessarily feel like he was robbed of a win, he doesn’t agree with the scores handed down by the judges in the fight.
“Obviously, I wanted to win,” Poirier said at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference. “Max is a great fighter, a tough competitor. I just being inside the eye of the storm, it felt a lot closer to me. I really thought it might have been 2-2 going into the fifth [round]. Mike Brown checked the scorecards when we got to the locker room and I think the judges gave me different rounds.
“I think all the judges gave him the second round. I thought I almost had him out. He hurt me, too, but I thought my shot when I followed up with elbows, I was cracking him. He told me in the medical tent, ‘Hey man, you had me out.’ We couldn’t hear the bell. Being in the fight, it felt a lot closer than that. When I heard the judges’ [scores], I was like no way. It was closer than that. Like the man says, it is what it is.”
There were definitely close rounds, which is why Poirier felt like he needed to leave it all in the cage for that final five minutes.
During the one-minute break following Round 4, Poirier and his coaches believed the fight could have been tied up with the fifth round deciding the result. That ultimately wasn’t the case with Holloway already up three rounds on two of the scorecards, which meant Poirier needed a finish to win.
While he still needs to go back and re-watch the fight, Poirier believes he probably could have done things a little bit differently.
“Going into the fifth, I thought it was close,” Poirier said. “I thought it might have been 2-2, so winning the fifth, I could have put myself into harm’s way a little bit more. Maybe I would have got finished. Maybe I would have finished him. I could have took more chances in the fifth but up to that point, I was playing [smart]. I was trying to fight like a professional. Be smart.
“It seemed like he was waiting to counter me with his right hand every time I would come in, but the crazy thing is he never threw it but it felt like his footwork and his movement was ready to throw that right hand. So I didn’t want to take too many risks getting countered. I didn’t want to miss and get countered. He had already hurt me in the second round. I fought and I thought I was doing well. I thought it was close rounds every time. Looking back, hindsight’s always 20/20, but I thought I fought smart and I tried to win. I really did.”
In the final 10 seconds, Holloway repeated trademark maneuver when he pointed to the canvas and invited Poirier to throw down with him. When Holloway did that back at UFC 300, he scored one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of combat sports when he flattened Justin Gaethje with a punch that ended the fight just as time expired.
Poirier was ready for his chance to trade punches with Holloway, but then realized just how dangerous that situation can be.
“I wanted to do it,” Poirier said. “That’s why I kept looking up at the clock. I said when are we doing this? You saw me looking at the clock a few times? Like that’s 25 seconds, not time yet.
“Then when he pointed down, I said OK I oblige and then he hit me with a few shots and I said OK, we’re going to wrestle a little bit. Let me clinch up. There’s only eight seconds left.”
As much as he wanted to go out on a win, Poirier still proved he can hang with the absolute best fighters in the world and that showed during a gritty, gutsy performance against Holloway at UFC 318.
His career may be over, but Poirier is happy that he’s walking away on his terms.
“I wanted to go show I can compete and make it close to where I can say look I’m still at the top of my game,” Poirier said. “I’m going out because I want to. I wanted it to be a war and a drag-em-out fight.”
