nah, just proved that max isn't as effective at 155 because he doesn't carry his power up there, and he's already a volume puncher at 145.
people will shit on me for this, but i still believe holloway is the better fighter than poirier and will be regarded as the better fighter in the long run, poirier was bigger and hits hard and max doesn't, i mean poirier gets hurt in a bunch of his fights and max never really " hurt " him, stung him a couple times but poirier never got that hurt.
if max wants a future at 155 he's gonna have to put on some muscle or something, or find a way to put a lil more on his punches. don't get me wrong max can still break most of the top 10 at LW, but the power just isn't there right now.
Max would need more than muscle to beat top LWs.
This fight showed that Max's striking defense is sorely lacking. That was the most obvious difference between the two:
Dustin used a mix of Muay Thai elbow guard and what looked like a modified boxing "cross guard" to block punches.
Max used his face to block punches.
Max switches stances, stays light on his feet and throws volume, using a lot of energy, but somewhat evenly dispersing his energy, rather than conserving and exploding with power. (He can get away with this at FW in part because he is bigger than most FWs and he has a durable chin... so far. )
The opposite of that style/strategy would be the Yoel Romero approach: conserve energy, wait for the right moment to plant feet and EXPLODE with maximum power.
Max, in my opinion, would need to adjust his style, conserving energy, especially defensively (getting punched in the face takes energy away, as does constantly bouncing and jumping around) and also planting his feet a little more to dig in on his shots.
I don't think he should throw out his style, or has worked for him at 145, but unless he makes some of these tweaks LWs will be able to block or walk through his punches then unload power shots to hurt him with heavier shots like Dustin did.
