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New Orleans, LA<\/strong> \u2013 UFC 318 delivered a night to remember inside the sold-out Smoothie King Arena, as Max Holloway defended his BMF title in a five-round war against hometown hero Dustin Poirier, who made his final walk to the Octagon in front of 18,138 passionate fans. With an electric atmosphere and a record-breaking gate of $8,088,122 \u2014 the highest in the venue\u2019s history \u2014 it was a fitting stage for a clash between two legends and one heartfelt goodbye.<\/p>\n In what was billed as Poirier\u2019s retirement fight, the New Orleans native gave everything he had in a gritty battle that saw both fighters hurt, dropped, and driven by pure will. Holloway looked sharper than ever at lightweight, setting a relentless pace and scoring knockdowns early. But Poirier, cheered on by a roaring home crowd, adjusted brilliantly in the middle rounds, landing a knockdown of his own and igniting the arena.<\/p>\n The third and fourth rounds turned into a striking masterclass, with Holloway\u2019s high-volume combinations slightly edging out Poirier\u2019s powerful counters. By the final round, Holloway’s face showed the toll of the fight, but his pace never slowed, and the judges rewarded him with a unanimous decision victory (48-47, 49-46, 49-46).<\/p>\n After the win, Holloway showed nothing but respect for his opponent in a heartfelt speech: Poirier, emotional in defeat but proud of his journey, delivered a moving retirement speech that left few dry eyes in the arena. “I feel appreciated. I feel seen. I feel loved by the fans, the Louisiana and the company. It’s been incredible. I didn’t know I touched as many people as I did just by chasing my dreams… I’m a kid living this dream out here, throwing punches, throwing knees. It’s beautiful.”<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier in the night, Brazil\u2019s Paulo Costa made a successful return to the middleweight division with a dominant performance over the No. 4 ranked Roman Kopylov. Utilizing powerful kicks and constant forward pressure, Costa controlled the action and earned a unanimous decision win (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).<\/p>\n After the bout, Costa wasted no time in reigniting a long-standing feud, boldly calling out Khamzat Chimaev: Fight of the Night<\/strong>: Brendan Allen vs. Marvin Vettori Main Card<\/strong><\/p>\n Max Holloway def. Dustin Poirier via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46) Prelims<\/strong><\/p>\n Vinicius Oliveira def. Kyler Phillips via unanimous decision Source: UFC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Orleans, LA \u2013 UFC 318 delivered a night to remember inside the sold-out Smoothie King Arena, as Max Holloway defended his BMF title in a five-round war against hometown hero Dustin Poirier, who made his final walk to the Octagon in front of 18,138 passionate fans. With an electric atmosphere and a record-breaking gate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056],"tags":[2567,2558,2568,2566,2557,2564,2563,2569,2556,306,2560,2561,81,2555,2502,2565,2559,323,2562,868],"class_list":["post-10369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-ateba-gautier","tag-bmf-title","tag-brendan-allen","tag-carli-judice","tag-dustin-poirier","tag-fight-night","tag-holloway-vs-poirier","tag-marvin-vettori","tag-max-holloway","tag-mma-news","tag-paulo-costa","tag-roman-kopylov","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-318","tag-ufc-bonuses","tag-ufc-fight-highlights","tag-ufc-new-orleans","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-retirement","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"viral-mag-1300x540":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-1300x540.jpg",1300,540,true],"viral-mag-800x500":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"viral-mag-700x700":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-700x700.jpg",700,700,true],"viral-mag-650x500":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-650x500.jpg",650,500,true],"viral-mag-500x500":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-500x500.jpg",500,500,true],"viral-mag-500x600":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-500x600.jpg",500,600,true],"viral-mag-360x240":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-360x240.jpg",360,240,true],"viral-mag-150x150":["https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226082306-150x150.jpg",150,150,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Elite News Nepal","author_link":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"English<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"New Orleans, LA \u2013 UFC 318 delivered a night to remember inside the sold-out Smoothie King Arena, as Max Holloway defended his BMF title in a five-round war against hometown hero Dustin Poirier, who made his final walk to the Octagon in front of 18,138 passionate fans. With an electric atmosphere and a record-breaking gate…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10399,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10369\/revisions\/10399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226081530-scaled.jpg\")
“I know I had to be the villain, but thank you for the hospitality. I’ve got the BMF belt. Come get me, baby! At this moment, I’m done talking. This is Dustin’s retirement fight. Give it up for the man!”<\/strong><\/p>\n
“This guy is tough to deal with when he’s in front of you. He’s slick, he’s crafty, he’s fast, he’s a champ. I’ve got nothing but respect for Max. He’s one of the good guys.<\/strong><\/p>\nCo-Main Event: Costa Calls Out Chimaev After Dominant Return<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/elitenewsnepal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226075858-scaled.jpg\")
“Everybody knows I hate Chimaev. You’re a coward. I’m going to chase you and I will not stop until I get you.”
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nBonus Awards<\/h3>\n
\nPerformance of the Night<\/strong>: Ateba Gautier
\nPerformance of the Night<\/strong>: Carli Judice<\/p>\nFull Results:<\/h3>\n
\nPaulo Costa def. Roman Kopylov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
\nDaniel Rodriguez def. Kevin Holland via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
\nPatricio Pitbull def. Dan Ige via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
\nMichael Johnson def. Daniel Zellhuber via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)<\/p>\n
\nBrendan Allen def. Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision
\nNikolay Veretennikov def. Francisco Prado via split decision
\nAteba Gautier def. Robert Valentin via TKO, Round 1 (1:10)
\nIslam Dulatov def. Adam Fugitt via KO, Round 1 (4:06)
\nJimmy Crute def. Marcin Prachnio via submission (armbar), Round 1 (4:42)
\nRyan Spann def. Lukasz Brzeski via submission (guillotine), Round 1 (2:47)
\nBrunno Ferreira def. Jackson McVey via submission (armbar), Round 1 (3:35)
\nCarli Judice def. Nicolle Caliari via TKO (knee), Round 3 (1:30)<\/p>\n