BMF titleholder Max Holloway didn’t hold back on Charles Oliveira after UFC 318.
Max Holloway lived up to his promise to spoil Dustin Poirier‘s retirement fight as he won their trilogy by unanimous decision on Saturday at UFC 318. In a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate, Holloway outpointed Poirier to retain his BMF belt and move closer to a potential lightweight title shot.
Holloway’s return to the lightweight division adds another dimension to the 155 lb title picture. His UFC 308 rival, Ilia Topuria, won the then-vacant lightweight belt at UFC 317 last month.
After putting his Poirier rivalry to rest at UFC 318, Holloway had one name on his mind for his next appearance inside the Octagon.
Max Holloway hits back at Charles Oliveira’s injury excuse for loss in 2015 fight
Holloway could potentially be one win away from a lightweight title shot after UFC 318. A clash with former featherweight foe, Charles Oliveira, might make sense for Holloway’s next fight.
Holloway vs. Oliveira 2 has some extra heat on it after some recent back-and-forths between the two rivals.
In a January interview with UFC.com, Oliveira was pressed about a potential BMF title rematch against Holloway 10 years after their first fight.
“I think Max himself talked about it. We met before, but I suffered an injury right in the beginning, so there wasn’t an actual fight,” Oliveira said. “I think we deserve to make this fight happen.
“He’s moved up, he’s the BMF, the toughest one. I’m very tough myself, I hold a lot of UFC records, so that would be huge.”
Holloway defeated Oliveira by TKO just seconds into the first round of their August 2015 UFC Fight Night headliner. Oliveira suffered an esophagus injury that waved off the fight in a bizarre ending to their clash.
Oliveira using his injury as an excuse for why he lost to Holloway rubbed the BMF champ the wrong way.
During an appearance on the UFC’s About Last Fight podcast, Holloway responded to Oliveira’s comments.
“The ball is in the UFC’s court, we’ll see what they want to do. If they want to go that way, we can go that way…there’s also Oliveira, I heard he was yapping saying our first fight was with injuries. He had an injury when we fought. But last time I check, when they did a follow up and wanted to find what the injury was, there was no injury report on it.
“They said he was fine. So I have no idea what the **** he is talking about.”
Oliveira’s injury was described as a micro-tear in his esophagus as Holloway went for a takedown in the first few seconds of the fight. The UFC later clarified that Oliveira’s injury wasn’t ‘major’, despite fears about his long-term health after the incident.
With the victory, Holloway became the youngest fighter in UFC history to earn 10 wins. Oliveira made the full-time move to lightweight at UFC 210.
As of this writing, Oliveira hasn’t responded to Holloway’s latest remarks after UFC 318. He’s targeting a return to the Octagon by year’s end.
Max Holloway allegedly told Dustin Poirier he ‘was out’ after eating heavy punches at UFC 318
In the meantime, Poirier made an interesting comment after Holloway’s trilogy win at UFC 318. Poirier claimed Holloway told him that he ‘was out’ after taking some hard blows in Round 2 of their fight.
Poirier appeared to protest the unanimous decision loss in the immediate aftermath of UFC 318. But despite his disagreements, Poirier remained firm on his decision to retire following the loss to Holloway.
Holloway nearly finished Poirier in the first round after dropping his opponent twice in 10 seconds in the opening minutes of the fight. Former UFC champ Aljamain Sterling accused Holloway of ‘pulling back’ on punches following the two early knockdowns.