Dustin Poirier will finally get his “last dance” against Max Holloway. During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, ‘The Diamond’ revealed that he was set to face off a third time with ‘Blessed’ at UFC 318. And to make things official, Dana White announced the BMF fight for July 19, 2025. However, there was one man who had already revealed the matchup months before it actually got announced. And that was none other than Chael Sonnen. 

During the recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy, Daniel Cormier pointed out that Chael Sonnen had already announced Poirier vs Holloway long before it was officially announced. He said, “As much as I’ve been crapping on you about some of the misinformation you’ve been spreading, you broke this one months ago.” Sitting beside Poirier at the analysts’ desk for UFC 314, ‘The American Gangster’ had claimed, “155 only has one piece of clarity, which is that Dustin and Max are matched up.” And as soon as these words came out of Sonnen’s mouth, Poirier looked as if he was taken by surprise. Weighing in on that, Cormier asked, “But isn’t it the worst-kept secret in all of mixed martial arts?” Well, it was a revelation that brought trouble for Poirier. 

‘The American Gangster’ said, “I’m sitting next to Dustin. Hunter [Campbell] text Dustin like, I mean, it would like a snap of the thing within seconds. I’m sitting right there. And then a month later, Dustin crawls up my a– talking about ‘Why are you telling people this? We’re sitting by each other now. Hunter and Dana thinking I’m feeding you this information.’ I was like, ‘I didn’t know this was a secret. Max called you out on TV. Jake looped it through to Bristol. And Hunter texted you.’ You don’t gotta put on your colombo rain jacket to realize what’s going on here. You don’t text a guy because you don’t want him to fight, you text him when you do want him to fight.”

Yes, the fight against Holloway has indeed excited the former interim lightweight champion. However, this matchup wasn’t the one that he initially opted for. Instead, he wanted to complete a trilogy against the former BMF champion, Justin Gaethje. 

Dustin Poirier wanted the Justin Gaethje trilogy instead of the Max Holloway trilogy

During a conversation with MMA Junkie, ‘The Diamond’ revealed, “Well, I wanted Gaethje. I was asking the UFC for Gaethje because we’re one and one. I wanted to close out that trilogy. For some reason, they really wanted this fight with Max. So I said, ‘Okay, that’s cool because I respect the guy.’” To be fair, Poirier has already defeated the BMF champion twice before. At UFC 143, the Cajun fighter submitted Holloway with an armbar. And at UFC 236, he won via a unanimous decision. 

Now, talking about the trilogy fight at UFC 318, there was nothing but excitement in his eyes. On The Pat McAfee Show, Poirier disclosed, “There’s not a better guy I could think to fight in my retirement fight. He’s a legend, former [undisputed] champion, current BMF champion, so we’re going to put on another war.” 

Well, Holloway had already called out Poirier following his loss against Ilia Topuria. It was a time when Poirier and Sonnen were sitting together on the analysts’ desk. And that was the moment that made it clear for ‘The Bad Guy’ that Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier was the fight to make with the BMF title on the line. 

What are your thoughts on the ‘worst kept secret’ of MMA? Do you think Poirier can manage to win for a third time against Holloway? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.