UFC veteran Dustin Poirier is looking forward to his final fight against Max Holloway for the BMF championship.
The fighter made his debut in 2011, alongside the likes of Cain Velasquez, Anderson Silva, and Georges St-Pierre as champions, and has managed to stay near the top for a long time. However, after 14 years in the Octagon, Poirier is finally ready to hang up the gloves and hand over the mantle to the younger generation. The 36-year-old is set to make his final appearance in the cage on July 19 and recognizes it as the final step in his legacy.
“I think we’re in a changing of the guard,” Poirier said on The Pat McAfee Show. “I got to see the era before me that I was growing up [watching]. I was a fan of these guys like Georges St-Pierre, B.J. Penn, Chuck Liddell.
“I got to kind of see that get transitioned out to this new era. I think we’re going through a little bit of that now.”
Poirier has often teased leaving the cage but always planned to have one more go in the Octagon before his retirement. Looking back, the fighter has no regrets about his career and is truly happy to be retiring after the conclusion of his trilogy bout with Max Holloway.
“I don’t want to leave the Octagon like I did in the Islam fight, where I’m kind of second-guessing everything,” Poirier said. “I want to be sure of it. I want to walk into the arena knowing that this is the last time I’m ever going to feel this.
“That being said, this whole camp, fight week—everything I’m going to do coming up in these next two months—I’m just going to try to embrace because this is the last time I’m ever going to be put in this position and feel these nerves and get to walk out in an arena and fight another man. When they gave me Max Holloway—what a legend to be standing across from—I said legends only, and he’s definitely all of that.”
Poirier has had over 40 fights in his career and has faced off against the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Islam Makhachev, Charles Oliveira, and more.
