UFC 317 is in the books, meaning attention will soon turn to the mixed martial arts leader’s next pay-per-view offering, UFC 318 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The promotion was in Las Vegas last week, where the T-Mobile Arena played host to a number of intriguing matchups for its sixth numbered event of the year. Of note were headline wins for Ilia Topuria and Alexandre Pantoja, as well as important victories for Joshua Van, Beneil Dariush and Payton Talbott.
While the aftermath of the June 28 card is currently the talk of the town, it won’t be long until focus sways to the next PPV, and from the lightweight and flyweight championship title pictures to conversation around two BMFs -- one of whom steps into the Octagon for the final time.
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In front of his native hometown crowd at UFC 318, set for the Smoothie King Arena on July 19, Dustin Poirier will take to the Octagon one last time, as he faces off with Max Holloway for the BMF belt. It will be the third encounter these two have had, with Poirier up 2-0 in the series and going for the clean sweep. A 4-0, 20-year-old Max Holloway made his UFC debut against Poirier at UFC 143, with Poirier winning via first-round submission. They would rematch seven years later at UFC 236, with Poirier scoring a clean decision to win the interim UFC lightweight championship.
Poirier, who had been teasing retirement for some time now, will be competing for the first time in over a year, after getting submitted by Islam Makhachev in a lightweight title bout that headlined UFC 302. Poirier is 2-3 since winning his trilogy bout with Conor McGregor, including another failed lightweight title bid against Charles Oliveira at UFC 269. Poirier has fought for the BMF title once before, getting knocked out by Justin Gaethje at UFC 291.
Holloway, the legendary former featherweight champion, will be competing in his first fight since failing to reclaim the title, getting knocked out by new lightweight champion Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 308. While Holloway began his MMA career at lightweight, he dropped to featherweight upon arriving to the UFC. Holloway's other lightweight bout outside of facing Poirier for the second time came at UFC 300, when Holloway had his legendary knockout of Gaethje to win the BMF title.
The co-main event will see Patricio Pitbull's second UFC bout, as he takes on Dan Ige. Pitbull, the legendary former two-division Bellator champion, made his UFC debut at UFC 314 in April, losing a decision against Yair Rodriguez. Ige has lost three of his last five but will enter this fight off a third-round finish of Sean Woodson at UFC 314.
Gautier, Costa, Johnson Set The Stage For BMF Title Headliner At UFC 318
Before Poirier and Holloway make their way out for the BMF title fight, several names will look to make their own statements on the main card for UFC 318.
This includes "The Silent Assassin" Ateba Gautier, who will be facing Robert Valentin. Gautier earned a UFC contract with a second-round finish of Yura Naito on Dana White's Contender Series in September and scored a first-round knockout of Jose Medina in his UFC debut in March. Gautier will be taking on Robert Valentin, who fell short to Ryan Loder in The Ultimate Fighter season 32 finale and dropped a controversial split decision to Torrez Finney in April.
Former middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa will also be in action, taking on Roman Kopylov. This fight was scheduled for UFC 317 but was pushed back to this card. Costa has lost four of his last five and has only fought four times since unsuccessfully challenging Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 253. He most recently fought at UFC 302 last year, losing to Sean Strickland. Kopylov has won six of seven, most recently scoring a knockout of Chris Curtis in January.
The main card is scheduled to open with veteran Michael Johnson taking on Daniel Zellhuber. Johnson has won two straight and four of his last six, most recently scoring a highlight knockout of Ottman Azaitar at UFC Tampa in December. This fight will mark Zellhuber's first fight since losing to Esteban Ribovics at Noche UFC 2 (UFC 306) in what many people consider to be the best MMA fight of 2024.
Those pairings have currently gotten the nod to feature on the main card over the likes of a long-awaited middleweight clash between bitter rivals Marvin Vettori and Brendan Allen, as well as Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez, Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferreira, and Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson, all of whom are expected to be featured players on the event's preliminary card.
See below for the UFC 318 lineup, as it stands.
Main Card:
- BMF Championship: Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier
- Featherweight: Dan Ige vs. Patricio Pitbull
- Middleweight: Ateba Gautier vs. Robert Valentin
- Middleweight: Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov
- Lightweight: Michael Johnson vs. Daniel Zellhuber
Preliminary Card (full card and bout order TBA):
- Middleweight: Marvin Vettori vs. Brendan Allen
- Welterweight: Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez
- Bantamweight: Kyler Phillips vs. Vinicius Oliveira
- Middleweight: Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferreira
- Welterweight: Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson
- Heavyweight: Ryan Spann vs. Lukasz Brzeski
- Light Heavyweight: Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio
- Welterweight: Adam Fugitt vs. Islam Dulatov
- Women's Flyweight: Carli Judice vs. Nicolle Caliari
- Welterweight: Francisco Prado vs. Nikolay Veretennikov