At UFC 318, Dustin Poirier will face Max Holloway in his retirement bout, but it's clear that "Blessed" wasn't one of the first two options the former interim lightweight champion put forward. Poirier chose not to hang up his gloves just yet after his third unsuccessful attempt to become an undisputed ruler on the grandest stage in MMA last year. Rather, he will go into the cage for a final goodbye. On July 19, Holloway will compete for the symbolic BMF title in the main event at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. It emerges like Poirier had other possible opponents in mind at first, even if a trilogy with the Hawaiian will be the end of his career. "The Diamond" recently told Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie that he asked UFC executives about the possibility of welcoming Ilia Topuria back to 155 pounds for another trilogy, which would include a score-setter with Justin Gaethje. "I requested Gaethje," Dustin Poirier stated. We are one to one, and I wanted to finish that trilogy, so I asked Hunter Campbell and the UFC for Gaethje. They seemed to be quite interested in this fight for some reason, so I remarked, "Well, that's cool because I respect the guy for my last fight." I have a lot of respect for Max, so it makes a lot of sense to me, but I'm not sure what their reasoning was when they put this together with me. Legends only, I said. That certainly fits. "They didn't offer Topuria at all," Poirier added. "Hey, what's up? I messaged Hunter and the UFC when he announced that he was heading to 155. Tell me what's happening with this man now that he's 55. However, they never gave it much thought. They assured me they wanted Max and that it wouldn't happen.