Dustin Poirier’s storied mixed martial arts career is over, but the perennial fan favourite was unable to end it on a winning note.
Max Holloway avenged two previous losses to “The Diamond” by taking a unanimous decision in their trilogy matchup in the main event of UFC 318.
The two lightweights battled for 25 minutes just like they did when they fought for an interim lightweight title six years ago. This time, the BMF title was on the line with Holloway getting his hand raised.
The UFC hadn’t held an event in New Orleans in 10 years but returned to Louisiana specifically for Poirier’s farewell fight.
The Lafayette native retires after a 32-fight UFC career — his record was 22-9 with one no-contest — that began on New Year’s Day in 2011, with him competing in the featherweight division for five years before later moving up to lightweight and eventually becoming one of the most popular fighters in the sport.
Poirier’s rivalries over the years with the likes of Conor McGregor, Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje and Holloway helped grow his stardom, as did his memorable Fight of the Night victories over Michael Chandler, Benoit Saint Denis, Dan Hooker, Anthony Pettis and Jim Miller.
He fell short in his three attempts to become an undisputed lightweight champion, getting submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019, Charles Oliveira in 2021 and Islam Makhachev in 2024, but he always battled his way back to the top of the division while boasting one of the most aggressive and exciting fighting styles in the UFC.
The Poirier-Holloway trilogy closes out with Poirier winning the series 2-1. Holloway avoided becoming the first fighter in UFC history to be swept in two separate trilogies. The former 145-pound champion went 0-3 during his featherweight championship trilogy with Alexander Volkanovski from 2019 to 2022.
Holloway and Poirier first met in 2012 when Holloway made his UFC debut as a short-notice replacement opponent as the youngest fighter on the UFC roster at the time, at just 20 years old. Holloway put up a solid showing but was still green and was submitted in the opening round with a mounted triangle-armbar by a 23-year-old Poirier back when the two both competed in the featherweight division.
Seven years later, Holloway stepped in against Poirier, once again as an injury replacement, and this time the pair competed for an interim lightweight title at UFC 236, with Poirier getting his hand raised by unanimous decision in a five-rounder considered one of the best fights of 2019. Holloway was the active featherweight champ at the time and looking to become a double champ.
Poirier celebrated that interim title win with his now-iconic quote: “I earned this in blood. I paid in full. This is mine.”
Although the UFC 318 main event didn’t have an undisputed title at stake, the trilogy match was fittingly for the BMF title, which is the organization’s belt that is supposed to represent the “Baddest Mother(expletive) in the game” based on fighting style.
It was never really in doubt that these two would deliver an entertaining fight, and that’s exactly what MMA fans got.
Holloway dropped Poirier early in Round 1 with a right hand straight down the pipe, but Poirier was able to recover. Holloway had Poirier in trouble in Round 2 as well after an early blitz, but couldn’t finish the fight, and Poirier ended the round by returning the favour and rocking Holloway before jumping for a guillotine choke as he so often does in his fights.
Holloway mixed up his attacks with various kicks and off-tempo punching combinations, while Poirier focused mostly on boxing with the occasional low kick. The third and fourth rounds saw Holloway continue to out-volume Poirier, attacking the body and using effective footwork.
Round 5 was much of the same, with both athletes trading strikes for the duration of the round. Holloway pointed to the centre of the cage in the final 10 seconds, like he often does, before throwing wild combinations until the final horn sounded.
This was the fourth official BMF title matchup in UFC history, with all but one featuring at least one of Poirier or Holloway.
Jorge Masvidal defeated Nate Diaz at UFC 241 in 2019 to win the inaugural belt before Masvidal was later stripped of it when he announced his retirement in 2023. Gaethje knocked out Poirier with a head kick to win the vacant BMF belt at UFC 291 two years ago before Holloway took the belt from Gaethje with an epic last-second finish at UFC 300.
Gaethje was among the many fighters in the arena at Smoothie King Center watching Poirier’s final fight in person.
Holloway and Poirier have represented the BMF style of fighting all throughout their careers, and both men showed their mettle Saturday.
The UFC played a tribute video celebrating Poirier’s career after the fight and Poirier was greeted by dozens of fighters as he walked back to the locker room.
“Just grateful, man, that I got to live this life and go on this journey — such a great experience,” Poirier said after the fight. “I want to thank the UFC for giving a kid a platform to make something of his life and use this as a vehicle to get my family into a safe place. I’m forever in debt to the fans, the company — mixed martial arts has taught me everything I know. I’m just grateful I got to walk this walk.”
UFC 318 was the first UFC pay-per-view event that was headlined by two fighters coming off losses since UFC 279 in 2022. That event featured a short-notice main event between Nate Diaz and Tony Ferguson. Prior to that, UFC 246 was headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone, both of whom had lost their previous outings.
Poirier’s most recent appearance was his lightweight title loss to Makhachev at UFC 302 roughly 13.5 months ago. Poirier pushed Makhachev to the limit but was submitted midway through the final round in a Fight of the Night effort and one of the best fights of 2024. Poirier had never lost back-to-back fights before UFC 318.
Meanwhile, Holloway was moving back up to 155 pounds after losing to Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 when the 145-pound title was on the line. Holloway was knocked out for the first time in his career that night nine months ago. Topuria and Makhachev are the No. 1 and No. 2 fighters, respectively, on the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings list.
The last time Holloway competed at lightweight was arguably his best performance to date when he defeated Gaethje last April in one of the most dramatic finishes to a UFC fight ever. Holloway had schooled Gaethje for nearly five full rounds before getting a literal last-second knockout.
This was the first of the three Holloway-Poirier matches in which Holloway had a full training camp, and it showed in his performance.
Holloway said afterwards he’s ready to defend the BMF belt against anyone who wants it and also alluded to his history with Topuria, who has also since moved up from featherweight to the lightweight division, winning the vacant title at UFC 317 last month.
Also at UFC 318, Paulo Costa returned to the win column with a vintage performance against Roman Kopylov, striking his way to a unanimous decision win.
The one-time middleweight title challenger began his pro MMA career 12-0 and his UFC tenure 5-0, but had lost four of his past five fights overall, three of which were against champions. One was a title bout in 2020 against then-champ Israel Adesanya. He also lost decisions to Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland, both in 2024.
After his win over Kopylov, Costa called out Khamzat Chimaev, who is set to challenge Dricus Du Plessis for the title at UFC 319 next month. Costa and Chimaev have had altercations at the UFC Performance Institute and were scheduled to fight in 2023, but it never came to fruition.
“Chimaev, you are a coward,” Costa said in his post-fight interview.
Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez went back and forth in a wild welterweight brawl. Both fighters had their moments, rocking the other on multiple occasions and attempting multiple submissions. Rodriguez ended up getting the nod on the judges’ scorecards with 29-28 scores across the board.
Former longtime Bellator MMA champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire picked up his first win in the UFC with a unanimous decision over Dan Ige in the featherweight division.
Veteran lightweight Michael Johnson kicked off the main card with an upset of Daniel Zellhuber via unanimous decision. Johnson is 39 and has competed against the best of his era, including posting a knockout win over Poirier back in 2016. Johnson has now won three in a row and proved he still has plenty left in the tank despite being an elder statesman at 155 pounds.
UFC 318 started off with six consecutive finishes on the preliminary card before a stretch of eight consecutive decisions to close out the card.
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