Max Holloway isn’t ruling out the possibility of an Ilia Topuria rematch at lightweight.
Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) was knocked out for the first time in his career by Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in their featherweight title fight at UFC 308 last October. Both fighters have since moved up to lightweight, with Topuria capturing the vacant belt with a knockout of Charles Oliveira at UFC 317.
If Holloway is able to successfully defend his BMF title in his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier on July 19 in the UFC 318 headliner (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), Holloway can see a rematch on the horizon.
“You’re only as good as your last fight,” Holloway told MMA Junkie in an interview facilitated by Stake.com. “UFC is about moments. You go out there and make a moment just like with (UFC) 300, you know what I mean? We had the chances of making moments and if I can go out there and get a moment, and get everybody excited about it, who’s to say that I’m not fighting for a title come end of the year or early next year?”
Contrary to most people’s opinions, Topuria moving up to 155 pounds was good news for Holloway.
“I was over the moon,” Holloway said. “A lot of people thought I’d be like, ‘What the hell? Why is he coming to ’55?’ I was over the moon when he announced he was coming to ’55, and when I found out he was getting the title shot, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Even the title shot for both of them.
“When they announced Oliveira and Topuria with the title shot, brother, I think I was the happiest man alive. I have history with the two guys. They’re figuring out my fight. I mean, we have this BMF title. I know ol’ boy (Topuria) likes walking around with the BMF title, but if he wants the authentic one, he knows where to find me. First thing’s first: There’s Dustin Poirier, but there’s a lot of history.”
Holloway struggled to give a definitive prediction for Topuria vs. Oliveira but wasn’t surprised to see “El Matador” get the early knockout.
“That’s just vintage Ilia, right?,” Holloway said. “I think you go in there and you walk forward towards a guy like Ilia, that’s what’s going to happen. I think that was vintage Oliveira, too. Going in there and walking straight towards him. He was taking the shots early, but you can only take a certain amount of shots. At the end of the day, I thought it was a great performance from Ilia.
“I thought when Oliveira grabbed him, and Oliveira kind of had him, had him dry, and got him in a leg lock. I was like, Oh man, just go back to grabbing him again, but Oliveira had something else in mind. He took that one step forward, and Ilia makes you pay. He looked great. He looked smart. Ilia fought his fight. Ilia was poking at him saying, ‘Yeah, keep walking forward.’ He was daring him, and Oliveira took the bait and was on the sh*tty end of a punch.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Max Holloway plots for Ilia Topuria rematch with UFC 318 win