| UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | July 19, 2025 (2025-07-19) | |||
| Venue | Smoothie King Center | |||
| City | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States | |||
| Attendance | 18,138[1] | |||
| Total gate | $8,088,122[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 was amixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on July 19, 2025, at theSmoothie King Center inNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States.[2]
The event marked the promotion's sixth visit to New Orleans and first sinceUFC Fight Night: Boetsch vs. Henderson in June 2015.[2]
FormerUFC Featherweight ChampionMax Holloway put his symbolic "BMF" (baddestmotherfucker) title on the line against former interimUFC Lightweight ChampionDustin Poirier in a lightweight bout in the main event.[3] This was their third meeting and Poirier's retirement fight. The pairing first met atUFC 143 in February 2012, when Holloway made his promotional debut and lost by a triangle-armbar submission.[4] Their second outing was in April 2019 atUFC 236 when Poirier became the interim lightweight champion after winning via unanimous decision, which also ended Holloway's 13-fight win streak.[5]
A middleweight bout between formerUFC Middleweight Championship challengerMarvin Vettori and formerLFA Middleweight ChampionBrendan Allen took place in the preliminary card of the event.[6] The pairing was previously scheduled to headlineUFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Curtis 2 in April 2024, but Vettori withdrew due to an injury.[7]
A welterweight bout betweenIslam Dulatov and Adam Fugitt took place at the event.[8] The pairing was previously scheduled to meet atUFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Song in last February, but Dulatov was forced to withdraw due to a serious injury.[9]
A welterweight bout betweenNeil Magny andGunnar Nelson was scheduled for this event.[10] They were previously scheduled to meet in May 2018 atUFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. Till but Nelson was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury.[11] In turn, two weeks prior to the event, it was reported that Nelson withdrew again due to a hamstring injury, so the bout was cancelled and Magny was moved to theUFC on ESPN: Albazi vs. Taira two weeks later with a different opponent.[12][13]
A light heavyweight bout betweenJimmy Crute andMarcin Prachnio took place at the event.[14] They were originally scheduled to compete in February atUFC 312 but Prachnio had to withdraw from the fight for unknown reasons.[15][16]
A middleweight bout between Ateba Abega Gautier and Robert Valentin took place at this event.[17] They were briefly scheduled to compete atUFC on ESPN: Lewis vs. Teixeira one week prior, but the pairing was moved to this event for unknown reasons.[18]
A women's strawweight bout betweenAmanda Ribas andTabatha Ricci was scheduled for this event.[19] However, the bout was moved toUFC on ABC: Whittaker vs. de Ridder one week later for unknown reasons.[20]
A middleweight bout between former title challengerPaulo Costa andRoman Kopylov was scheduled forUFC 317.[21] However the bout was moved to this event for unknown reasons.[22]
Kevin Holland andDaniel Rodriguez met in a welterweight bout at this event.[23] The pairing was first booked atUFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Burns in May 2020, but Holland pulled out due to injury.[24] They were then expected to meet again in September 2022 atUFC 279 in a catchweight bout of 180 pounds.[25] However, the promotion opted to book them on short notice against different opponents at the same event, mainly due toKhamzat Chimaev missing weight by nearly 10 pounds for his headliner bout (Holland and Chimaev ended up facing each other in the co-main event).[26]
A middleweight bout betweenIkram Aliskerov and Brunno Ferreira was scheduled for this event.[27] However, on June 30, Aliskerov withdrew from the fight due to a broken toe and was replaced by promotional newcomer Jackson McVey.[28][29]
| Main card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Lightweight | Max Holloway (c) | def. | Dustin Poirier | Decision (unanimous) (48–47, 49–46, 49–46) | 5 | 5:00 | [a] |
| Middleweight | Paulo Costa | def. | Roman Kopylov | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Welterweight | Daniel Rodriguez | def. | Kevin Holland | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Featherweight | Patrício Pitbull | def. | Dan Ige | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Lightweight | Michael Johnson | def. | Daniel Zellhuber | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary card (ESPN / ESPN+ / Disney+) | |||||||
| Bantamweight | Vinicius Oliveira | def. | Kyler Phillips | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Middleweight | Brendan Allen | def. | Marvin Vettori | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Welterweight | Nikolay Veretennikov | def. | Francisco Prado | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Middleweight | Ateba Abega Gautier | def. | Robert Valentin | TKO (punches) | 1 | 1:10 | |
| Early preliminary card (ESPN2 / ESPN+ / Disney+ / UFC Fight Pass) | |||||||
| Welterweight | Islam Dulatov | def. | Adam Fugitt | KO (punches) | 1 | 4:06 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Jimmy Crute | def. | Marcin Prachnio | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 4:41 | |
| Heavyweight | Ryan Spann | def. | Łukasz Brzeski | Submission (guillotine choke) | 1 | 2:37 | |
| Middleweight | Brunno Ferreira | def. | Jackson McVey | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 3:35 | |
| Women's Flyweight | Carli Judice | def. | Nicolle Caliari | TKO (knee to the body and punches) | 3 | 1:30 | |
The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[31]
