Islam Makhachev, Dustin Poirier Booked For UFC 302
UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will defend his title at UFC 302 against former interim champion Dustin Poirier. UFC CEO Dana White announced the fight at the UFC 300 Post-Fight Press Conference.
UFC 302 will take place in Newark, New Jersey on June 1, 2024. The event will be Newark’s second UFC pay-per-view in the last two years after hosting UFC 288 in May of 2023.
At UFC 302, Makhachev will attempt to defend the lightweight title against a lightweight for the first time in his reign. Thus far, he has two title defenses with each coming against former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovksi. In addition to those victories, he won the title against Charles Oliveira. Those three performances and his 13-fight win streak helped him claim the No. 1 spot in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings.
Poirier earned a title shot of his UFC 298 knockout against Benoit Saint-Denis. In the aftermath of his performance, White stated that Poirier’s stock was through the roof. That clearly was not hyperbole as Poirier finds himself fighting for gold.
Poirier’s title shot will not come without controversy. Despite being an all-time great, he is 2-2 in his last four fights and he is 0-2 in undisputed title fights.
The pair of elite lightweight fights that took place at UFC 300 helped Poirier get a title shot. It is tough to argue that Poirier is more deserving than Max Holloway or Arman Tsarukyan; however, he is the only one of the three available to fight at UFC 302. The others would need more time to recover and start a training camp.
The UFC 302 co-main event will be a five-round fight between former middleweight champion Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa. The middleweight title picture should receive a significant shake-up in 2024 and that bout will be important in those discussions.
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