UFC featherweight, Dustin Poirier, has already seen two potential opponents for UFC 143 scratched due to injury, with Erik Koch and then Ricardo Lamas dropping out. He now hopes the third time will be the charm as the UFC has signed Hawaiian featherweight, Max Holloway to face Poirier on the February card. MMA Weekly has the report:
Sources close to the match-up confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that verbal agreements are in place for the match-up with bout agreements to follow.
Holloway should be familiar to BloodyElbow.com readers, as he was the #7 featherweight prospect on our 2012 World MMA Scouting Report. Leland Roling compared the aggressive Hawaiian's style to Anthony Pettis, as Holloway incorporates a wide array of flying and spinning kicks, knees and elbows into his striking game. This could prove to be an interesting stylistic match-up against the similarly aggressive, but slightly more standard kickboxing of Poirier, although with Poirier's slick ground skills thrown in as well, Holloway would be wise to try to keep this one standing. Poirier will also have an experience edge here, but Holloway's been in there with some of Hawaii's more experienced veterans like Harris Sarmiento and Bryson Kamaka, and came away victorious both times.
Max Holloway (4-0)
W Eddie Rincon (decision) - UIC 4
W Harris Sarmiento (split decision) - X1 Champions 3
W Bryson Kamaka (KO) - X1 Island Pride
0 recs | 14 comments
Welcome to the big leagues kid.
Good luck…you’ll need it.
Ulf Murphy - January 5, 2012
Damn.
I wanted to see Korean Zombie get the nod to fight Poirier.
LenBarson - January 5, 2012
me too
biggant - January 5, 2012 via mobile
Seems to be a brutal mismatch on paper
Afrotikiman - January 5, 2012 via mobile
It wasn't too long ago that
Poirier was the heavy underdog against Grispi.
Scott Haber - January 5, 2012
Truth
Charles Awad - January 5, 2012
I'm a bit confused...
Is Holloway a true BW or FW? He’s on the FW Scouting Report, but the article says BW, and Kamaka and Sarmiento I think are both LW’s. Is feather the weight class he’ll stay in or will he drop to bantam after this fight?
exzacht - January 5, 2012
He's a featherweight.
It was a typo…sorry!
Scott Haber - January 5, 2012
Quite alright, I hate nitpicking over typos
I was just thinking it would suck for him to be fighting up a weight class in his UFC debut, esp. against Poirier.
exzacht - January 5, 2012
Holy shit thats a Hell of a match up for his first fight in the ufc. Damn i like holloway too he gots some solid hands on em
youfailme91 - January 5, 2012 via mobile
Whoa welcome to the ufc indeed. Well, on the bright side, if he wins, he’ll probably be in Dana’s infamous mix.
Thomas Benjamin - January 5, 2012
Another UFC 143
I’m just waiting for the impending Condit injury….:(
SSreporters - January 5, 2012
he was one of the prospects
that i didn’t really expect to be on the bloodyelbow prospect reports.
he will either sink or swim. and i think he will sink to the bottom.
DK_Monster - January 5, 2012
"In the belly of the beast"
Big opportunity for Holloway. I’ll be watching.
higgledy-piggledy - January 5, 2012
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