Max Holloway has established himself as one of the UFC’s top stars of this generation but there was a time where he was PFL bound before Dustin Poirier altered his course. This was touched on ahead of Holloway’s looming rematch with Conor McGregor set for UFC 329 on Saturday, July 11th.

During an interview conducted by Megan Olivi for the official UFC social channels, ‘Blessed’ delved into how he signed with the Professional Fighters League and why he never ultimately stepped into the Smart Cage, as Holloway said,

“Not many people know, I ended up signing with PFL. I was supposed to be in their first ever 155-pound tournament. But the dates just kept getting pushed back, pushed back. I think the date got pushed back twice. I found management and at the time, the management that I was with, I told them I don’t need you to do my contracts because I already have a contract with PFL. I just need sponsors and then the whole UFC came.”

“They called me up and they said hey, look, we’ve got news for UFC. We’ve got two guys that we want you to fight and I told them, I don’t event want to know anybody yet. I’m in a freakin’ contract with PFL. You guys got to get me out of that damn contract first and then we can go from there. They were like yeah whatever, we’re on it.”

“Hang up the phone and called back like an hour later hey, Ray Sefo is super cool. He loves you, he likes you, and he told you he would let you go. Yeah, he just let me go out of the contract because they did push it back two times and I don’t know what it’s going to look like for later on, right? Let me go, shout out to Ray Sefo doing that.”

Max Holloway and the rich history he would go on to establish with Dustin Poirier

Max Holloway would fall short in 2012 as Dustin Poirier locked in a first round triangle armbar at UFC 143. The pair would go on to have two subsequent fights inside the confines of the cage with Poirier winning the rematch, but Holloway got one in the win column in their trilogy clash.

‘The Diamond’ would go 2-0 over Holloway by way of a unanimous decision at UFC 236 in 2019. The third clash saw Holloway earn the UD verdict in what was Poirier’s retirement fight from MMA at UFC 318 in July of last year.