Max has some of the best pressure footwork in the game, and he kept Poirier’s back to the fence for long stretches while also avoiding the clinch. The other major factor in Holloway making this an all time great fight was his ability to stay in Dustin’s face all night. While Holloway went to the body often enough to have an effect doing so earlier and more often could be a key adjustment were there ever to be a third fight. In addition, landing enough hard shots to the abdomen is going to bring a fighter’s guard down and create openings to the head. The accumulated fatigue from eating so many body shots clearly slowed Poirier down in the later rounds.Īgainst an opponent guarding high and using head movement like Poirier employed all fight it’s often the body that’s the softest target. …or near the end of long exchanges Max was able to repeatedly hurt Dustin to the body. In the past Holloway has shown the ability to take a shot in an exchange without wilting, but in this phase of the fight the power difference showed once again. But often as not Poirier was able to counter Holloway as he got going and force him to reset. That’s how he beat GOAT candidate and FW kingpin Jose Aldo twice, it’s how he put on a masterclass against Brian Ortega, and as we’ll see his best moments in this fight consisted of him putting just that sort of avalanche pressure on The Diamond. Holloway is a fearsome pressurer who is adept at staying in his opponents’ faces picking his shots quickly and accurately (but rarely hurriedly) until his opponents just can’t withstand further onslaught. Virtually any time the two trade clean shots Holloway got the worst of it, which allows Poirier to hold his ground and throw back with confidence rather than whither under Max’s sustained pressure as so many of Blessed’s FW opponents have done.Īnother major factor in Poirier’s win was his ability to stop Max’s attacks early in their development. Dustin is a little off-balance and has to catch himself, but Max is thrown out of stance over his back foot by the Cajun’s jab. In the final round the two pugilists trade shots. It hasn’t hurt that his time at ATT has also resulted in cleaner punching mechanics, but in any case it became clear early in the fight that Poirier could seriously hurt Holloway with a single shot in a way that the Hawaiian couldn’t hope to match. I mentioned that Poirier has grown into a full fledged LW, and the added bulk in his legs, hips, and back have allowed him to deliver tremendously greater power in his shots than when he was fighting as a drained FW. How Poirier managed to stave off Blessed while landing hard shots at key moments is the subject of our discussion.īut first, the power. Holloway’s toughness and volume made this a much closer fight than the cards indicated and Poirier had to dig very deep to find answers to the relentless Hawaiian. Poirier’s power edge did win the day, but not on its own by any means. A simple reading of the fight would answer “no” to the first question and “yes, but not enough” to the second, and while that’s broadly correct as always in five round fights between top combatants at the peak of their powers the simple reading is just the tip of the iceberg. The big questions coming into the fight were whether the taller but much slimmer Holloway coming up from FW would be able to deal with the power of the Cajun who had fully grown into the LW division (and indeed was starting to have a hard time making 155), and whether or not his own power and cardio would make the divisional jump with him and make for a balanced scrap. Their first fight saw The Diamond quickly submit the unpolished 4-0 Holloway (who was all of 20 years old at the time), but cage fighting aficionados the world over expected their second tilt to be a far more competitive affair as Holloway had risen to be the FW champion and one of the sport’s P4P talents, while after a long career as a mid card action fighter Poirier had finally put the pieces together to become a dominant force in the LW division. While neither man’s lights went out on the balmy Atlanta night of April 13th, 2019, the second clash between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway has nonetheless taken its place as a modern classic in the young sport of MMA.
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