Dustin Poirier's Legendary Career Ends at UFC 318

Zak Drapeau
Jul 17
6 min read

by Zak Drapeau 7/17/2025 FansOnlySportz

This Saturday is UFC 318 and it will be headlined by a retirement fight of one of the baddest men to ever step foot in the Octagon. Dustin Poirier vs Max Holloway 3 will be the swan song for Poirier and his 41-fight career.

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Dustin and Max's History

Dustin Poirier first fought in the UFC on January 1st of 2011 and 13 months later for his 4th fight in the promotion, he fought Max Holloway for the first time in what would be Holloway's first UFC bout. This Saturday, the two will meet for their 3rd and final time in Poirier's send off fight.

First Fight

The first meeting happened when Dustin was 23 and Max just 21 and both were part of the Featherweight (145 pounds) division. Poirier would be the victor via first round-submission. While both fighters were nowhere near their current skill and stature, Max's first fight was bad. With very little grappling experience for the young boxer, Poirier was able to use his jiu-jitsu background to dominate the short fight and give Max a lesson he would take with him for his career.

Second Fight

The second fight would happen 7 years later in April of 2019. This fight was a very different story, with both fighters being superstars in the sport and veterans at this point, the interim Lightweight (155 pounds) title would be on the line in the Main Event of UFC 236. With both men's names on the marquee to sell out the State Farm Arena in Atlanta Georgia, the pressure was on and neither men would shy away from it.

In 2019, Dustin Poirier was one of the most-respected and most-feared men in the UFC. At 24-4 (1NC) at this point, this would be his first shot at a title. Leading up to this fight, DP had only 9 fights at Lightweight but amassed a 8-1 record and was on a 4-fight win streak.

In the blue corner, Max Holloway was already champion at this point but in the Featherweight division. After starting his career 3-3, Holloway would tear through the 145-division with a 13-fight win streak including 4-0 in title. This would be Max's first fight at Lightweight in his career and even though it was for an interim belt, a win would put Max in Champ-Champ territory.

The match would turn out to be an all-timer, going to a 5 round decision that saw Dustin Poirier once again be the victor.

6 years later, and 13 since their first fight, these future hall-of-famers will duke it out one more time.

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Poirier's Career

Early Years

Starting in the UFC at Featherweight at the crisp age of 21, Poirier's early years were a good start to a great career. Still raw, Poirier would face off against Max, Korean Zombie, Cub Swanson and Conor McGregor, as well as 7 others by the age of 25. The Conor fight would be his last at 145 as the 100-second knockout would cause Poirier to move up and catapult Conor to the heights were all familiar with.

Dustin's rise to one of the best the sport's ever seen was parallel with arguably the most stacked division the sport has ever seen, the UFC's lightweight division from 2015-2025. It should not be understated how savage the 155-division has been in Dustin's time and makes his excellence that much more impressive. \

Aside from a rogue-first round knockout by Michael Johnson, Poirier would win his first 9 fights in the division including 6 KO's. His competition included Bobby Green, Jim Miller, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje and the aforementioned Johnson and Holloway.

Up to his bout with Holloway at 30 years of age, DP had been in the Main Event of his card 4 times in a row and in the card's top-2 fights in 5 of his last 6. He would go on to Main Event 5 more PPVs in a 30-month span.

Must-See Poirier

After the who's-who run Poirier went through including winning an interim Lightweight title, it would be time for Poirier to have his first legitimate shot at a UFC title. Too bad it was against Khabib.

Remember when I said the Lightweight division was stacked at this time? Well Khabib Nurmagomedov was not only the best Lightweight at this time, but is the greatest 155-er ever and debatably the greatest in UFC History... and would be against Dustin in his DP's first title fight.

Giving Khabib his toughest contest to this point, Poirier would be submitted in the 3rd round of a spectacular performance. Earning respect from the champ in and outside of the ring, even in a losing performance this is when Poirier's legacy went from elite to goat.

His next fight may be his greatest battle to date. A Fight Night war between the Diamond and Dan Hooker, another Featherweight jumper. A 5-round split decision victory would happen after both men had landed over 150 punches and a total of 484 were thrown.

Then we would get to Poirier's most famous fights of his career... against Conor McGregor.

The McGregor saga is too big for this article to fully give it justice but sh*t was talked, money was thrown around, legs were broken, fights were had and "wives were in DMs". McGregor was 3 years removed from his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather and the undisputed most-famous person in combat sports. A mutual respect between the two started well but ended nasty after Dustin knocked out Conor in the first fight and a catastrophic leg injury awarded DP the trilogy win.

These two fights earned DP his highest grossing paydays, most bought PPVs and arguably his most notable wins of his career.

After the trilogy was concluded, another title shot was in the works and again against a savage Champion in the prime of his career... Charles Oliveira.

Another featherweight jumper, Oliveira was on top of the 155-mountain after winning the Vacant belt 7 months prior. Oliveira was riding a 9-fight win streak and his unreal jiu-jitsu and exciting fights were making him one of the biggest draws in the company. A brawl would ensue between the two legends and would end with Poirier once again tapping out.

As he always does, Poirier picked himself up and looked forward. Up next would be a newcomer to the company, Michael Chandler. Chandler may be the most exciting fighter in the division in 2023 and a battle between him and Poirier was expected to be a barnburner and did NOT disappoint.

Winning UFC 281's fight of the night over an amazing Main Event between Adesanya and Pereira (the first one), Poirier and Chandler would throw haymaker after haymaker. With 3 knockdowns, 3 submission attempts, an electric chair and 250 strikes in just two rounds, this fight was a classic capped off by a Poirier RNC-submission victory.

A rematch with Justin Gaethje would end tragically for Poirier after a head kick flatlined him. The fight was exciting but many thought this marked the end of Poirier's then 12-year career. He would have another fight with up-and-comer Benoit Saint Denis that was ended by Dustin's fists before his final shot at the title that eluded him his whole career.

And guess what, it was against Islam Makhachev.

It should be studied how Poirier's 3 chances for the LW title were against Khabib, Charles and Islam. That my friends is a tough list of opponents.

For 5 rounds Islam would sort of dominate Poirier before earning a submission victory and that's where we stand today. Poirier's 41-fight career will come to an end after UFC 318 against Max Holloway and what a fitting way to go out.

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Note From the Author

I think it's fair to say that Poirier is in contention for the hardest resume of any UFC fighter in the company's history. Just to list off a few so you can really get the picture:

McGregor 3x 2-1

Holloway 3x 2-0

Gaethje 2x 1-1

Nurmagomedov 0-1

Makhachev 0-1

"Prime-Oliveira" 0-1

Pettis 1-0

Alvarez 1-0 (1)

That's just the former Champions Dustin has fought.

That list includes 7 hall of famers with 24 title wins between them that Poirier fought a total of 12 fights against. Dustin's record was 7-5 (1NC) in those wars.

Poirier is also my pick for Best Fighter to Never Win a Championship. His interim title win came during a time Khabib was injured and yes "technically" its a championship but I don't count interims.

His legacy as a humanitarian and gentleman outside of the octagon is also legendary. His charity, The Good Fight Foundation has helped raise millions of dollars for underprivileged communities for 8 years and his work in his home state of Louisiana has been massive for his community.

In the octagon, his skill and excitement are profound and Poirier may very well be on a shortlist of Top-10 snubs of All-Time.

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