Diamond Fais do-do: How Dustin Poirier Overwhelmed Max Holloway at UFC 236
Photo courtesy of @SnackMuay
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. 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. 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. 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. Poirier’s power edge did win the day, but not on its own by any means. 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. How Poirier managed to stave off Blessed while landing hard shots at key moments is the subject of our discussion.
But first, the power. 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. 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.
Holloway’s first taste of Dustin’s power, and it doesn’t seem to be to his liking. Holloway isn’t in any danger of going out, his chin is too good for that, but you can see from the way his head whips and the way he staggers back out of stance that not only did Dustin’s punches hurt him, they physically moved him in a way that FW punches never have. The theme of Poirier’s power interrupting Max’s flow is one we’ll return to.
The first round ended up being all Poirier as Dustin threw all of his effort (and probably too much of his energy) into trying to get a hurt Holloway out early. But the power differential didn’t decrease as the fight wore on; even in the later rounds Poirier’s shots destabilized and moved Max in a way that made it very hard for him to establish his characteristic building volume.
In the final round the two pugilists trade shots. 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. 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.
Another major factor in Poirier’s win was his ability to stop Max’s attacks early in their development. 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. 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. But often as not Poirier was able to counter Holloway as he got going and force him to reset. 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.
Holloway blitzes forward looking to put his strikes together as Poirier retreats. Instead, even an off-balance, retreating check hook from Dustin is enough to stop Max’s attack dead and force him to reset.
Max had many of his best moments when a tiring Poirier was up against the fence. Here he starts into a combo while keeping the pressure on with good footwork, but a left from Poirier shakes him enough to force him back to the center of the octagon. Look how Max has to skip sideways just to maintain his balance: that’s a lot of power to absorb.
When The Diamond wasn’t stopping Max in his tracks in the midst of exchanges, he was often defending very intelligently with some old school boxing tactics.
Holloway tries a hand trap but as he pulls Poirier’s hand down Dustin lets his elbow glide up as he brings his left to his face. The Diamond leaves the elbow high and buries his chin behind it cutting off Max’s access.
This sort of sequence, Max trying to get some volume going but Poirier taking very little damage due to smart defense, was a consistent theme throughout the fight. Even when Holloway put Dustin’s back against the fence he wasn’t able to land nearly as many clean shots as he has against other opponents.
Late in the third Holloway starts putting the pressure on Poirier. Many of these shots do land, but because Poirier’s chin is tucked they’re not going to put him down. Certainly they don’t wobble The Diamond enough to stop him from recovering to guard, slip, roll, and angle out to avoid the worst of the onslaught.
So if Poirier was able to consistently land with more power, counter, and defend so well what made this fight competitive? Firstly, while Max wasn’t landing at his usual clip of almost 50% striking accuracy, the 40% he totaled for this fight still amounted to a lot of volume. When you throw 446 shots as Holloway did 40% accuracy is enough to hurt. Secondly, Blessed had consistent success going hard to The Diamond’s body.
Whether it was single hard shots like this…
…or near the end of long exchanges Max was able to repeatedly hurt Dustin to the body. The accumulated fatigue from eating so many body shots clearly slowed Poirier down in the later rounds.
Against an opponent guarding high and using head movement like Poirier employed all fight it’s often the body that’s the softest target. In addition, landing enough hard shots to the abdomen is going to bring a fighter’s guard down and create openings to the head. 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.
The other major factor in Holloway making this an all time great fight was his ability to stay in Dustin’s face all night. 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. While The Diamond’s shots were harder and prevented Max from overwhelming him, Holloway was the fighter controlling distance for most of the night.
Max flurries to back Dustin up. Poirier tries to roll out to his right but Holloway stays right in his face. Notice that Blessed maintains his angle relative to Poirier without collapsing the distance and falling into a momentum-halting clinch.
So having established what each fighter did well, what exactly vaults this scrap into the top echelon of all-time MMA action? There are two main factors: firstly, this was a classical style matchup of volume vs power that remained balanced throughout. Whether Poirier could continue to land hard shots at key moments or Max would find a way to overwhelm and finish Dustin were open questions until the final bell. The depth of skill each combatant showed in neutralizing his opponent’s weapons and strategy was unreal; these fighters truly brought out the best in each other. The second reason is that this fight was just a war and neither man ever came close to mentally breaking.
These sorts of exchanges were constant throughout the fight. Max dropping a barrage, Dustin defending and then surging off the fence with counters. These pugilists both have heart and grit for days.
Skill, determination, perseverance, momentum swings, razor thin margins separating the fighters in multiple rounds, and simply epic willpower to throw down from both guys make this fight an all time great. It’s a fight that rewards re-watching to see all the small ways each man strove to get an advantage, and it’s one I’m sure we will go back to for years as one of MMA’s truly legendary nights.