{"id":265935,"date":"2025-07-15T03:51:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265935\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T03:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:51:19","slug":"ex-champ-says-max-holloway-can-beat-dustin-poiriers-boxing-with-no-1-adjustment-at-ufc-318","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265935\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-champ says Max Holloway can beat Dustin Poirier\u2019s boxing with ‘no. 1 adjustment’ at UFC 318"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Max Holloway is looking to avoid a three-peat against Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 this weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UFC 318<\/a> goes down this Saturday, from New Orleans, Louisiana, all for the retirement fight of local legend and former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poirier\u2019s final fight is a trilogy bout against longtime rival and current BMF titleholder Max Holloway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Holloway has lost to Poirier twice, once by submission and the other by decision. Poirier spoiled Holloway\u2019s UFC debut<\/a> as well as his 13-fight win streak in 2019. Now, Holloway has the chance to take Poirier\u2019s retirement fight in front of his home crowd.<\/p>\n

How does Holloway pull it off after an 0-2 start against Poirier?<\/p>\n

A former UFC champion has laid out Holloway\u2019s keys to victory against Poirier, one of the best boxers in the UFC today.<\/p>\n

\"DustinPhoto by Josh Hedges\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesDominick Cruz says Max Holloway can neutralize Dustin Poirier with kicks at UFC 318<\/p>\n

Two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz<\/a> broke down Poirier vs. Holloway 3 on ESPN MMA.<\/p>\n

Cruz said what makes Poirier really dangerous is his ability to pull his opponents into range and that\u2019s where he finds success in the boxing department.<\/p>\n

Holloway was bloodied by Poirier\u2019s punches in their lightweight fight back in 2019.<\/p>\n

Cruz thinks Holloway\u2019s key to beating Poirier is his kicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax Holloway is going to make adjustments to this,\u201d Cruz said of the BMF champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe #1 adjustment is start with the hands, finish with the kicks because this man\u2019s moving backwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHolloway\u2019s got nasty, very, very good kicks with a lot of dexterity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way Max can beat the boxing of Poirier is by using his kicks and using his range. This teep kick slides in there like a jab.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things we\u2019ve seen from Max as well. He was countering Poirier\u2019s head shots by going to the body. So, whenever Poirier would slide back, Max would go [to the body], and the adjustment comes [with a head kick].\u201d<\/p>\n

Poirier\u2019s latest KO loss was via head kick to Justin Gaethje<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re going to see some adjustments for Max with that slide-back hook, the pulling sequences, where he likes to pull you into the pocket and brawl, and he\u2019s very accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re gonna see more kicks, more knees, more elbows, and a lot more trickiness out of Max Holloway this time,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Max Holloway broke Justin Gaethje\u2019s nose with spinning kick<\/p>\n

Holloway racked up style points in his last appearance at lightweight.<\/p>\n

Before he suffered the first knockout loss of his career to Ilia Topuria at UFC 309<\/a> last October, Holloway picked up the \u2018KO of the century\u2019\u2014a buzzer-beater stoppage of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Holloway scored major damage en route to the knockout. In the closing seconds of round 1, Holloway timed a spinning back kick that connected beautifully on Gaethje\u2019s face, sending him across the Octagon.<\/p>\n

The kick broke Gaethje\u2019s nose and the fight was largely one-way traffic after that.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Holloway is looking to avoid a three-peat against Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 this weekend. UFC 318…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,101437,12136,101438,79,5706,101439,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-265935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-dominick-cruz","10":"tag-dustin-poirier","11":"tag-max-holloway","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc","14":"tag-ufc-318","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114855220578428921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}