Ahead of UFC 318, the focus has primarily been on Dustin Poirier and his “last dance.” Max Holloway, on the other hand, has gone below the radar. Nevertheless, the BMF champion has been cooking up some ideas, looking ahead to what lies following his title defense against ‘The Diamond’ in his farewell fight. While some of us would hope that he’d have some new and emerging contenders in sight for his next fight, ‘Blessed’ has plans to go back and revisit a couple of old rivalries.

Is competing in 145lbs different from competing at 155lbs? Well, to put it simply, we’ll get the answer when we get to the fight, and that’s exactly what Max Holloway had to say. The former featherweight champion has not forgotten Ilia Topuria, who handed him his first KO loss. But now that he’s in the lightweight division and the champion as well, Holloway is ecstatic about the possibility of a rematch with ‘El Matador’.

“I was over the moon when he [Topuria] announced he was coming to 55′. And then, when I found out he got the title shot, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,” Max Holloway told MMA Junkie in a recent interview. “Even the title shot with both of them. When they announced Oliveira and Topuria with the title shot, brother, I think I was the happiest man alive.”

Max Holloway previously mentioned how he despised Ilia Topuria wearing a BMF belt after beating him at UFC 308, even though the gimmick title wasn’t on the line. Even fans sided with ‘Blessed’. But now, he is willing to go head-to-head one more time with the lightweight champion, and he’ll put his title, the real BMF belt, on the line this time. In the meantime, Holloway also hinted that he could even consider a rematch with Charles Oliveira, too.

“I have history with two guys. They’re figuring out my fight. You know what I mean? We have this BMF title. So, I know old boy likes walking around with a BMF title,” Max Holloway added. “If he wants the authentic one, you know where to find me… First things first is Dustin Poirier, like I said. But there’s a lot of history there. And there’s a lot of history with those two guys.”

Well, wanting to fight Ilia Topuria is understandable, given that they have a well-known rivalry with each other. But why is Max Holloway talking about fighting Charles Oliveira, as they’ve already butted heads years ago? Well, it appears that ‘Blessed’ was ticked off with Oliveira’s statements after the fight, which he claims was an excuse.

Max Holloway didn’t like Charles Oliveira’s comments about their fight

In 2015, Charles Oliveira managed to build a steady 4-fight winning streak after a topsy-turvy start to his UFC career. But then came Max Holloway, who ended that winning streak with a 1st round knockout win. Oliveira would later claim that he suffered an injury in the very first round in the neck, which stems from getting hurt while training, and he lost because of that, not because Holloway outperformed him.

“20 days before the fight I got taken down during wrestling practice, and I hit my head. Despite that, I kept training normally,” Charles Oliveira said in 2022. “[During the fight], when he [Holloway] transitioned away from the takedown, I hit my head against the cage. When I got up I felt my whole body tingling.” But guess what? Max Holloway is not buying what ‘Do Bronxs’ was selling, and claimed to have done his own research and found nothing about any injury.

“I saw Oliveira talking about his injury in our fight. All love to Oliveira, but last time I checked, there was something that came out about the injury in the fight, and it was nothing. Somebody wrote about it, and there was no injury. So, I don’t know what injury he’s talking about,” Max Holloway further stated. Well, it seems like Max Holloway is pretty excited about these rematches, but it will be interesting to see how his fight against Dustin Poirier pans out. After all, he could lose the BMF title.

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