Whether it’s his memorable knockouts, humble attitude or popular catch phrases, Waianae’s Max Holloway has established himself as one of the fan favorites in the UFC over the course of 30 fights.

That will make the boos that greet him as he walks to the Octagon for UFC 318’s main event Saturday night stand out as unusual.

The former lightweight champion is the final opponent in the storied career of Dustin Poirier, who will retire win or lose after closing Saturday’s card held in his home state at the Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans. The bout is a trilogy fight.

Thirteen years after the first fight between the two, they will meet with the UFC’s “BMF” title on the line. Poirier, who won both of the previous fights against Holloway, is looking to go out on top with a belt to cement his UFC career.

Holloway, who is coming off his first knockout loss, is looking to play spoiler in front of a crowd that will almost unanimously be cheering against him.

“It’s going to be a fun one, man. It’s his last dance,” Holloway said at Thursday’s press conference as the jeers became louder and louder from the crowd. “Bring more of the boos, please. That’s what I like to hear.”

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Holloway has seemed to enjoy his bad guy status this week. Both fighters are competing for the 31st time. Holloway is 22-8 and a former featherweight champion who won 13 in a row at one point.

Poirier is 21-8 with one no contest and is a former interim lightweight champion. He won the title in a unanimous decision over Holloway six years ago in Atlanta when Holloway was making the move up in weight from 145 pounds.

Holloway fought a second time last June at 155 pounds and knocked out Justin Gaethje in the final second to win the UFC’s “BMF” title. After one last fight against Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title in October, Holloway has had nine months off between fights and is here at 155 pounds to stay for the rest of his career.

“I’m great. Just being able to focus on this camp and not even teeter-tottering on the chance of we might go back down, we can do certain things, we can supplement certain ways, so at the end of the day, these 155 camps are the best,” Holloway said Wednesday. “I feel good. I feel great. I get to eat a lot more during camp.”

Poirier and Holloway first met in Holloway’s debut fight in the UFC in February 2012. Poirier won that fight with a triangle armbar submission in the first round.

Holloway went on to win 16 of his next 18 fights and establish a lengthy UFC featherweight title reign before the opportunity presented itself to jump to 155 pounds to fight for the interim title.

The rematch was a much closer fight, with Holloway a bloody mess by the end of the 25-minute war after taking a nasty kick to the face in the fourth round.

A similar scenario for both fighters is likely on Saturday. Both have promised to put on a show.

“I’m not trying to jab and circle and win rounds, I’m trying to scrap and finish these guys,” Poirier said Thursday. “Max isn’t afraid of the fire. We’ve shown that before. We’ve watched his career. We’ve watched him become champion. We’ve watched him put down the legends of the sport. You have two guys on that, it’s going to be a head-on collision. We’re going to be crash-test dummies in there, baby.”

Poirier’s list of signature wins includes Conor McGregor twice, Michael Chandler, Gaethje and Dan Hooker.

Holloway’s marquee wins include Gaethje, Yair Rodriguez, Charles Oliveira and Jose Aldo twice.

Holloway is the only UFC fighter to get to fight two opponents who had each beaten him twice.

His third bout against Alexander Volkanovski after losing twice was the most lopsided loss of the three.

“Not many guys get to go out there and fight a trilogy that they had two losses in already,” Holloway said. “It’s my second try. Hopefully I don’t go 0-6.”

Holloway is ranked No. 5 and Poirier is No. 6 at 155 pounds. Holloway is also in the pound-for-pound rankings at No. 11.

Kahuku alum Dan Ige is also fighting on the card, taking on former Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull, who is fighting in the UFC for only the second time, on the main card in a featherweight fight.

Ige is ranked No. 11 at 145 pounds. Pitbull won Bellator titles at featherweight and lightweight.