The UFC is set to introduce another interim championship with the promotion announcing that Max Holloway will move up to lightweight and fight Dustin Poirer for the interim title in the main event at UFC 236 on April 13th in Atlanta, Georgia. The announcement comes after lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is set to remain sidelined until the fall. UFC president Dana White confirmed that title contender Tony Ferguson turned down his spot in an interim title fight for undisclosed reasons. This will be the second time Holloway and Poirier meet, as Poirier defeated Holloway in their first meeting submitting Holloway at UFC 143 in February 2012. UFC 236 will also feature Kelvin Gastelum vs. Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight title in the co-main event. The event marks the first time in the promotion’s history that two interim titles will be decided.
Georges St-Pierre made it official Thursday that he is retiring from mixed martial arts. St-Pierre was complimentary of UFC president Dana White during the press conference, although did state many times that both Khabib Nuramgomedov and he wanted to fight but the UFC had other plans. As it stands, St-Pierre’s final fight will be a submission victory over Michael Bisping to claim the UFC middleweight title at UFC 217. The fight was St-Pierre’s first in four years in which he claimed a title in a second weight class.
Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Blachowicz vs. Santos event in Prague, Czech Republic drew 16,583 and a gate of $1,606,176 at the O2 Arena for the promotion’s first card in the Czech Republic. There was no Fight of the Night bonus awarded and instead four Performance of the Night bonuses went to Thiago Santos, Stefan Struve, Michal Oleksiejczuk, and Dwight Grant for $50,000 each.