There’s been some debate recently about who the UFC’s best boxer is, with Max Holloway being a leading contender after two striking masterclasses against Calkin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez, but Dustin Poirier believes someone else deserves that crown – and it’s not himself!
“Me and Thiago Alves was just talking about this. I think Petr Yan,” Poirier told Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “Just the way he moves; the way he doesn’t waste a lot of movements.
“His positioning is always crisp, his footwork, he’s never out of position. He doesn’t load up, but he throws clean power shots. Good accuracy, works the body well. Goes up, goes down. It’s just a lot of things that he does really, really well.”
Poirier’s opinion holds water as not only is he a talented boxer in his own right, but he also has first-hand experience of going up against Holloway, defeating him by unanimous decision in ‘Blessed’s’ lightweight debut back in 2019.
However, While that would give Poirier a case to claim that he could have the best hands, he’s quick to play down that the idea.
“I’m on that list. I’m definitely on that list. I can’t say (that I’m the best). I’m not that guy. (But) I can box.”
Meanwhile, boxing expert Teddy Atlas has been wading into the debate and while he’d be the first to admit he doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of MMA, he came away so impressed by Max Holloway striking against Rodriguez on Saturday night that he now believes him to be the best in the business, as far as mixed martial arts go at least.
“I didn’t realize how versatile he was and what a complete package,” Atlas said on his ‘The Fight’ show. “I thought of him almost as a professional boxer, that he’s so good at using his legs, controlling the range, boxing, jabbing, setting combinations up, crisp punches, he can counter you, he can time you, he can go on the mat with you. Oh my God, this guy is the full package. He’s the complete package. He is so loaded, he does it all. He’s an old Swiss army knife. He’s got everything.”
“Max is so special, but that was his greatest advantage of why he was able to keep the edge in the fight and win the fight, was that he could do so many other things. He is a great, great striker. I don’t know if anyone in the business is better. I know he’s not as good a puncher maybe as some of the greatest strikers out there. But as far as overall abilities in all the areas, I mean, I don’t know if anyone can really match him when it comes to striking. He was doing everything, but that (striking) was the thing that carried the day.”
