There really isn’t another fighter on the planet quite as familiar with the fighting tendencies and abilities of both Conor McGregor and Max Holloway than Dustin Poirier.
The popular, recently retired fighter completed and won separate trilogies with McGregor and Holloway during his UFC career.
McGregor hasn’t competed in mixed martial arts since back-to-back fights against Poirier in 2021, but the organization officially announced over the weekend that McGregor’s comeback fight has been scheduled against Holloway for Las Vegas on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena.
Now that two of his most notable former rivals are set to meet in the UFC 329 main event, who better to break down the sequel than Poirier? After all, “The Diamond” spent much of his UFC career specifically preparing for either McGregor or Holloway – 18.75 per cent of it to be exact.
Ireland’s McGregor is a former two-weight UFC champion but only has one win since 2016, and he sustained a gruesome broken leg in his most recent appearance.
Meanwhile, Hawaii’s Holloway has fought eight times since McGregor’s last bout and is listed as a better than a five-to-one betting favourite compared to McGregor, who is nearly to a four-to-one betting underdog two months ahead of the event.
Despite all that, Poirier is not writing off McGregor’s chances.
“The thing is, Conor has the power,” Poirier said when sharing his initial thoughts on the anticipated matchup on Deep Waters, a weekly YouTube show hosted by former UFC stars Din Thomas, Chris Weidman, Jorge Masvidal and Poirier. “Like, no matter the injury, (his punching power is) gonna be there still, the timing, a lot of other things matter but the power is gonna be there.”
McGregor already could have a slight mental advantage over Holloway since UFC 329’s featured matchup is a rematch of a 2013 fight from before either won a UFC title.
The story of that initial meeting was McGregor overcoming a significant knee injury during the bout. McGregor, in his second UFC appearance, tore the ACL in one of his knees early in the bout and used wrestling instead of striking to control Holloway en route to a three-round unanimous decision.
When asked if the first fight result might have any impact on the rematch, Poirier argued: “It’ll have influence on the trash talk because Conor got a win over him so he’s going to keep riding that, but it’s a completely different fight. (The first fight) was too long ago.”
McGregor, 37, has been rumoured to be making his return to the sport for a few years at this point. He had a previous matchup with Michael Chandler scheduled for June 2024 that never came to fruition.
Holloway, 34, is also a former featherweight champion like McGregor and has become the UFC’s all-time leader in total time spent competing inside the Octagon. Holloway is coming off a five-round decision loss to Charles Oliveira in March during which Oliveira used ground control to secure the match.
“I think Max smokes him like a brisket,” Masvidal said of the matchup. “Max lost a good fight with Charles but Max is still Max. I still feel he can go win a world title, do some big things. I think it’s a bad fight for Conor, confidence or no confidence.”
Stylistically, the Holloway vs. McGregor rematch is shaping up to be a striking match.
“This is going to be a fire fight,” Poirier said. “Oliveira was able to smother (Holloway), which I was surprised because Max is hard to hold down. Conor’s going to kickbox with him for 25 minutes.”
Poirier went a combined 4-2 versus McGregor and Holloway.
Poirier vs. Holloway history
UFC 143, Feb. 4, 2012: Poirier welcomed Holloway to the UFC on short notice back when they competed as featherweights, submitting a rookie Holloway within one round.
UFC 236, April 13, 2019: Poirier won an interim UFC lightweight title via five-round unanimous decision over Holloway, who accepted a bout with Poirier on short notice for a second time.
UFC 318, July 19, 2025: Holloway avenged his two previous losses to Poirier with a five-round unanimous decision win for the BMF Title at UFC 318 last July in Poirier’s retirement fight in his home state of Louisiana.
Poirier vs. McGregor history
UFC 178, Sept. 27, 2014: McGregor knocked Poirier out in less than two minutes to improve to 4-0 in the UFC. It was Poirier’s first knockout loss and the fight that resulted in him moving up from 145 to 155 pounds.
UFC 257, Jan. 24, 2021: Poirier stunned the combat sports world on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi when he became the first MMA opponent to stop McGregor with strikes (Floyd Mayweather Jr. also did in a 2017 boxing match).
UFC 264, July 10, 2021: The heated trilogy ended with Poirier earning a second consecutive TKO win over McGregor after McGregor broke his left leg at the end of the opening round.
In one corner, rust could be a factor for McGregor considering his inactivity. In the other, wear-and-tear could be an issue for Holloway.
“The thing that I keep thinking about is Max in his last three fights, he’s touched the canvas more times than he’s touched in his whole career,” Poirier said. “Conor can punch and if Max’s chin is finally catching up to his style of fighting he does, Conor could put him down.”
The first fight between Holloway and McGregor took place at 145 pounds and in recent years they’ve been mostly competing as 155-pounders. However, the UFC 329 headliner has been scheduled as a welterweight contest, so they’ll be able to weigh as much as 171 pounds the day before the event.
“I think (the rematch) is a little different of a story,” Poirier added. “Max is for sure a volume puncher, but at (155 pounds) when I fought him last, he had power behind his shots and I gotta think at 170 he’s going to have even more power because Max can punch now, man. He’s not just a volume puncher. He can finish fights.”
Matchups confirmed for UFC 329 so far:
— Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway
— Paddy Pimblett vs. Benoît Saint Denis
— Cory Sandhagen vs. Mario Bautista
— Brandon Royval vs. Lone'er Kavanagh
— Gable Steveson vs. Elisha Ellison
— Robert Whittaker vs. Nikita Krylov
— Cody Garbrandt vs. Adrian Yanez
— Tracy Cortez vs. Wang Cong
— Damian Pinas vs. Cesar Almeida
-- Luke Riley vs. Kai Kamaka III
-- Ode' Osbourne vs. Cody Durden
