Breaking: Max Holloway Meets Dustin Poirier For Interim Title At UFC 236
Featherweight champion Max Holloway will face Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title at the upcoming UFC 236 pay-per-view on April 13 in Atlanta.
As first reported by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto and confirmed by UFC President Dana White, Holloway will face Poirier in the main event of UFC 236 that will take place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia:
A second interim bout between Kelvin Gastelum and Israel Adesanya will serve as the evening’s co-main event.
The UFC decided to go ahead and create an interim lightweight title while the champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov is serving a nine-month suspension for his involvement in the UFC 229 post-fight melee.
For the time being, Holloway will hold on to his featherweight strap and have a chance to become a “champ-champ” [suddenly that is not as impressive as it was just last year]. Poirier will finally get the money fight he has lobbied for since July.
Poirier holds a victory over Holloway when in ‘Blessed’s’ UFC debut at UFC 143 back in 2012.
According to White, former interim lightweight champion, Tony Ferguson was offered the fight opposite Holloway. However, ‘El Cucuy’ turned the fight down.
According to UFC president Dana White, Tony Ferguson was offered the interim lightweight title fight against Max Holloway, and he turned it down. I have reached out to Ferguson for comment.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) February 23, 2019
Perhaps that’s what Ferguson was referring to in a Tweet just the other day.