(Video) Max Holloway Has Awkward Encounter as Rival Ilia Topuria Fight Gear Makes Appearance in Gym

UFC 318's Max Holloway jokingly throws out fighter with Ilia Topuria 'Vale Tudo' custom shorts during training seminar.

(Video) Max Holloway Has Awkward Encounter as Rival Ilia Topuria Fight Gear Makes Appearance in Gym

Good sport Max Holloway drops fighter with Ilia Topuria shorts from training seminar (Source: X)

Before his upcoming UFC 318 PPV trilogy fight vs. Dustin Poirier was a thing, Max Holloway was dapping it up with old rival Korean Zombie on a vacation. Holloway even attended fight seminars with his UFC Singapore rival-turned-friend. However, during the ordeal, one person he’d rather not think about now resurfaced, in a weird way: Ilia Topuria.

Holloway tried and failed a bid at featherweight glory, going up against former 145-pound kingpin Ilia Topuria at UFC 308. The knockout cemented the tone of Topuria’s PPV title campaign that year. The loss sent “Blessed” packing for a more contemplative, 155-pound shift up, where he has had better success.

However, on a recent trip with the Korean Zombie for his YT channel (also 🎥: @SaintRogies on X), the ghost of haunted past came knocking. The 2024 Season had quite a number of Venum custom shorts.

During his recent seminar, Holloway spotted a fighter donning the ‘Men’s UFC Unrivaled VENUM Red Ilia Topuria Vale Tudo Short, pipelined by ufcstore.com for $129.99. In a comedic and zingy move, Holloway ordered the fighter to be sent packing home!

The fighter and Korean Zombie had their fun, surfing and catching up during the trip. In a zesty turn of events, though, Holloway’s surfer wife Alessa Quizon even outdid his punching scores on the Brazilinator machine! Seeing his rival’s custom shorts just spices up the hurt that Holloway took sportingly and with all the fun.

For now, he’d be looking forward to UFC 318 and sticking to his boxing mettle with a better fallout. He meets another boxer, Dustin Poirier, for it. Speaking of which, the event recently got its first official poster, and it is quite the banger!

Poster for UFC 318 PPV title fight feat Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway is out

During the UFC 318 PPV card on July 19 from inside the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, the Louisiana faithful crowd could see Poirier attend his last-ever war. He meets the gritty Max Holloway for the BMF title in the main event.

Poster for the UFC 318 Max Holloway BMF title fight has been released
Poster for the UFC 318 Max Holloway BMF title fight has been released (Source: X)

This scrap is of a big proportion, given the retirement angle and how both fighters are fan favorites. But also adding to it is the fact that Poirier challenges the warrior-esque Max Holloway for his “BMF” silver strap. While gimmicky and not a legacy divisional title, “BMF” fights usually go hard to prove the best of all brawlers.

Poirier is off a fifth-round submission PPV title loss to Islam Makhachev and yet another failed bid at gold. While he did plan an early retirement, this matchup has set up a clash of epic proportions between strikers. Poirier is long overdue for his crack to snag a strap, and a BMF one just adds to the flavor. The poster for it mimics the sentiments that go along with it; UFC litigation and marketing dropped it this Friday.

This will be the third time the duo would have fought, in the longest spanning UFC competition trilogy. They first met in 2012 at UFC 143 in a featherweight scrapper. It happened to be Max Holloway’s official UFC debut and punctuated his lone submission loss. The rematch at UFC 236 took form half a decade later for the interim UFC lightweight championship.

“Diamond” snagged it in the bag via five-round unanimous decision. Now, the Hawaiian striker has the unique opportunity to get one over Poirier in a possible last dance. As such, this is a fight that everyone is clamoring for to take shape soon.

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