No. 2 ranked lightweight contender Dustin Poirier has made his prediction for the upcoming featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
Volkanovski and Holloway are set to collide for featherweight gold in the co-main event of UFC 251 this Saturday in Abu Dhabi. The pair first met in December, when Volkanovski defeated Holloway by decision to claim the featherweight belt.
Poirier, who defeated Holloway by decision in an absolute war in early 2019, believes his former foe will defeat Volkanovski in the rematch. He made his prediction for the fight as part of a partnership with MyBookie.ag on Instagram.
“I’m going with Max Holloway,” Poirier said. “I think he’s going to win his belt back, become the featherweight champion again.”
Dustin Poirier last fought in late June, when he picked up a decision win over New Zealand’s Dan Hooker in a 2020 Fight of the Year contender. This victory separated him from a failed title bid opposite UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Post-fight, his coach Mike Brown advocated for a fight with the winner of the upcoming fight between Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje—and a million-dollar payday.
“If it were me, it’s a title shot [next for Poirier],” Brown said of Poirier on The Luke Thomas Show (via MyMMANews). “In a perfect world if Gaethje wins [against Khabib Nurmagomedov], in a perfect world, that’s what would happen. That would be everything going best-case scenario, but whoever he fights, he deserves a raise and deserves a lot of money for what he’s doing. Every time it’s craziness. Every fight is wild. There’s never a boring minute. I think he deserves a million-dollar payday.
“This is why this guy deserves a lot of money, this guy deserves to be paid,” Brown continued, praising Poirier. “We all want to see him. As a fight fan, him and Gaethje are the two most exciting guys in the organization. They went head-to-head already and it was Fight Of The Year. I mean every fight for him is a Fight Of The Year candidate. It’s concerning because you don’t know which one will be the last one. These guys are doing a lot of damage to each other. It’s definitely not good for you.”
What do you think of this prediction from Dustin Poirier?