As has been widely speculated in recent weeks, Dustin Poirier will close out his career at home in Louisiana, taking on Max Holloway for the UFC’s “BMF” championship.
Promotion officials announced lightweight the bout, which will headline UFC 318 on July 19, 2025, on Friday. The event will take place at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
The fight will be the third meeting between two future Hall of Famers, while serving as Dustin Poirier’s retirement fight. Holloway, ranked #1 at featherweight, sits at #4 in the UFC lightweight division, with Poirier one spot behind him in the #5 spot.
The duo first faced off in 2012 in a featherweight fight, which happened to be Hawaiian Holloway’s promotional debut. Poirier won that encounter, the captured gold in a unanimous decision in a rematch in 2019 with the UFC’s interim lightweight title on the line.
Poirier, however, would fall short against Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title unification bout in his very next fight. Two years later, he would lose another title bid opposite Charles Oliveira, then a third opposite Islam Makhachev last year.
Holloway, who reigned as the UFC’s featherweight champion with three successful title defenses from 2017 to 2019, claimed the “BMF” (yes, that’s “Baddest Motherf*cker,” a symbolic title) championship last year at UFC 300, knocking out Justin Gaethje. “Blessed” went on to face Ilia Topuria for featherweight gold, but was unable to reclaim his old belt, winding up knocked out in the third round.
The pair, however, remain two of the most popular, and most electrifying, fighters on the UFC roster.
No other bouts have been officially announced for UFC 318, which will be the promotion’s first visit to New Orleans since 2015, and their sixth visit to the city overall. In the late 90s/early 2000s, the UFC also made stops in Lake Charles and Bossier City. They debuted in New Orleans in 1998, with UFC 16: Battle of the Bayou held there.
