Brian Ortega Offers Thoughts On Holloway vs. Poirier Interim Title Bout

An interim UFC lightweight title will be implemented in the main event of April’s UFC 236.

The show goes down from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on April 13th. Featherweight champion Max Holloway jumps up to 155 pounds to take on the No. 3-ranked Dustin Poirier for the honors. Recently, former 145-pound title challenger Brian Ortega caught up with Bloody Elbow to give his thoughts on the match-up.

In his last outing, “T-City” was handed the first loss of his professional fighting career by Holloway. The Californian said he thinks the match-up has potential to be ‘Fight Of The Night’:

“I’m not too sure, man. I know they fought before. I know Dustin got the better of him when they were young. I think both evolved into very good fighters. Max is not the same Max and Dustin is not the same Dustin. The key points that both of them have: obviously Max has the conditioning, the cardio, being able to throw punches in bunches.

“Then also, Dustin has other hidden weapons that he doesn’t use, and he has great striking as well. I feel like these are the fights I love to watch, because they’re fights you don’t know who to root with, or who to go with — because they’re both so good that they could finish each other. Those are the fights you want to see because that’s how you get fight of the night.”

Poirier and Holloway have fought before. “The Diamond” defeated Holloway for the first time in his fighting career back in 2012. The bout was also the Hawaiian’s first in the UFC. Poirier won the fight in the first round via submission.

Fast-forward seven years later, and Holloway is the king at 145 pounds, Poirier is up at lightweight, and the pair will headline one of the biggest events of the year.