Rarely do UFC stars get to go out with their retirement fight announced well in advance. Even rarer is an event built around them for that explicit purpose. Yet here we are, with UFC 318 set in New Orleans, headlined by the retiring Louisiana native Dustin Poirier, challenging Max Holloway for the “BMF” belt.
Poirier, a former interim champ at lightweight, holds two wins over Hawaii’s “Blessed,” a former featherweight champion and future Hall of Famer, like Poirier himself. Yet “The Diamond” fell short in a previous attempt to claim the BMF title, losing to Justin Gaethje. With Holloway beating Gaethje at UFC 300, the door was opened for Poirier to get another shot at gold. Perhaps not the gold he wants most (that would be the undisputed UFC lightweight championship, which Poirier failed to obtain on three separate attempts), but still a nice addition to his legacy.
As for Holloway, a win over the retiring Poirier would see him avenge two losses and further his own legacy, after being knocked out by Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 last year.
Weigh-ins for UFC 318 take place Friday in New Orleans, results from the morning’s official weigh-in can be found below.
UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 Weigh-In Results
Main card
Lightweight: Max Holloway (c) (155) vs. Dustin Poirier (156) – for the “BMF” championship
Middleweight: Paulo Costa (185) vs. Roman Kopylov (185)
Welterweight: Kevin Holland (170) vs. Daniel Rodriguez (170)
Featherweight: Dan Ige (145) vs. Patrício Pitbull (145)
Lightweight: Michael Johnson (155) vs. Daniel Zellhuber (156)
Preliminary card
Bantamweight: Kyler Phillips (135) vs. Vinicius Oliveira (135)
Middleweight: Marvin Vettori (186) vs. Brendan Allen (185)
Welterweight: Francisco Prado (170) vs. Nikolay Veretennikov (169)
Middleweight: Ateba Abega Gautier (185) vs. Robert Valentin (186)
Early preliminary card
Welterweight: Adam Fugitt (171) vs. Islam Dulatov (171)
Light Heavyweight: Jimmy Crute (205) vs. Marcin Prachnio (205)
Heavyweight: Ryan Spann (252) vs. Łukasz Brzeski (242)
Middleweight: Brunno Ferreira (186) vs. Jackson McVey (185)
Women’s Flyweight: Carli Judice (125) vs. Nicolle Caliari (126)
