On Saturday night in New Orleans, Max Holloway defeated Dustin Poirier via unanimous decision to defend his BMF belt (watch the highlights here).
It was the first successful defense of a BMF belt ever — and every fighter that has ever won the belt has lost their next fight. Holloway won the BMF off Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, but lost a featherweight title fight to Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 before putting the symbolic title on the line at UFC 318 against Poirier.
That means Topuria isn’t officially a BMF
title holder despite his third round KO win over the BMF champion. Technicalities haven’t stopped him from walking around with a replica BMF belt and calling himself the BMF, and he pulled out the fake title following the big Holloway win over Poirier.
Still mine pic.twitter.com/1Z7qWeXXGM
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) July 20, 2025
“Still mine,” he wrote with a shade emoji.
Holloway had some thoughts on Topuria’s BMF belt claims at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference.
“It just makes no sense what he’s doing walking around with it, you know?” Holloway said. “Did you see Islam walking around with a [featherweight] championship belt after beating [Alexander Volkanovski] two times? You know what I mean?”
“It is what it is, the [BMF] belt wasn’t on the line,” he added. “Get over it, brother. Like, why you spend money on a damn f—king belt? That’s just crazy to me. I know you’re rich now, but come on. That is just waste of money.”
Lil Wayne putting the BMF belt on Max Holloway was kinda goofy ngl pic.twitter.com/B6iXwRnVgt
— Elonov (@ElonovMMA) July 20, 2025
But as “Blessed” made it clear during his post-fight interview, he’d love to get a second chance against Topuria, and he’s hoping the opportunity to hold to BMF title in the official record books draws “El Matador” into his orbit again.
“A lot of motherf—kers are coming after this BMF belt,” Holloway said. “Come get me! And I got some history with the champ. So UFC, it’s your move next, baby.”
UFC CEO Dana White made it sound possible.
“I think he’s in a great position right now.” White said of Holloway during the UFC 318 post-fight press conference. “He just defended the BMF title. He’s ranked number four in the world [at lightweight]. Anything is possible for Max right now.”
Is that a fight you’re interested in seeing, Maniacs? Or is Ilia Topuria already enough of a BMF in your eyes to make it unnecessary? Let us know in the comments below!
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