Nate Diaz vs. Max Holloway has all the makings of a BMF title fight.
It doesn’t look like the BMF title is going anywhere after Max Holloway’s first successful title defense against Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 earlier this month. Holloway also re-emerged in the lightweight title picture with the unanimous decision over his longtime rival.
Following the win, former title challenger and superstar Nate Diaz said Holloway ‘keeps wearing my belt’, alluding to a potential BMF title fight.
Of course, Diaz is a free agent and if he were to return, it would likely be at welterweight, a weight class above Holloway.
While the BMF title fight would surely sell on pay-per-view, a longtime referee says it wouldn’t be a great fight.
John McCarthy says Max Holloway would dominate Nate Diaz
‘Big’ John McCarthy, the legendary official who refereed Diaz’s 2016 rematch with Conor McGregor and many other iconic fights, believes Holloway would have his way with the much older Diaz.
Diaz, 40, hasn’t fought in the UFC in nearly three years whereas Holloway has looked better than ever in his past two fights at lightweight, beating both Poirier and Justin Gaethje.
“I’m being honest. I don’t think it’s a great fight,” McCarthy said on the Weighing In Podcast.
“It’s not a great fight. It would be a one-sided fight,” McCarthy continued.
“Max is way faster than Nate. He moves a lot. Nate doesn’t do well with people that move well.
“Even [Josh Thomson], you have movement that caused him problems throughout the fight and that’s when he was young, and he wasn’t slower…
“I’m being honest. I look at that and it’s a matter of Nate Diaz—how long can he last without Max just cutting him up like he’s got a razor in his hand and it being stopped on cuts?”
Diaz has been TKO’ed twice in his career, once by a head kick from Josh Thomson in 2013 and the other was a doctor’s stoppage TKO due to a cut around his eye in his fight against Jorge Masvidal in 2019.
Max Holloway vs. Nate Diaz would be fifth BMF title fight in UFC history
Dustin Poirier is the only fighter to challenge for the UFC’s BMF title twice, both times proving unsuccessful. Diaz could potentially become the second.
Diaz expressed his desire in a UFC comeback earlier this year, with Holloway one of the names on his hit list.
So far, there have been only four fights for the BMF belt since the inaugural title was on the line between Diaz and Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244 in 2019.
| Jorge Masvidal defeats Nate Diaz at UFC 244 (2019) |
| Justin Gaethje defeats Dustin Poirier at UFC 291 (2023) |
| Max Holloway defeats Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 (2024) |
| Max Holloway defeats Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 (2025) |
Time will tell if Holloway vs. Diaz will be part of the BMF title lineage.
