Max Holloway retains UFC BMF title, spoils Dustin Poirier’s retirement fight

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Max Holloway said he wanted to play spoiler and he did it Saturday night in the main event.

Holloway defeated Dustin Poirier in a unanimous decision to retain the UFC BMF Championship in UFC 318 at the Smoothie King Center.

The win for Holloway is the first in three fights against Poirier, who beat him in 2012 and 2019.

Holloway (28-8) retained his BMF title after landing 98 more strikes (201-109) and landing 53% of his significant strikes.

Fighting against a partisan Louisiana crowd for the native son Poirier in his retirement match, Holloway was the quicker fighter for the entire match, knocking Poirier off his feet early in the first round.

In the second, another flurry of combinations put Poirier on the mat again, followed by two minutes of dominant grappling.

“I’m pretty happy,” Holloway said. Poirier can still hit hard, he said. “but he kept coming back and back. I came in and I knew I was going to try and be the spoiler and the villain.”

Poirier’s best chance came in the last 30 seconds of the second round, getting Holloway on the ground with a chokehold and several ground punches before the round ended.

The loss ends a brilliant career for Poirier, who finishes his career with a 30-10 record. Poirier, the UFC Lightweight Interim Champion in 2019, also defeated the likes of Connor McGregor twice in addition to victories over Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler.

“Obviously I wanted to win, but being inside the eye of the storm I thought the fight was a lot closer,” Poirier said. “I thought I had him out in the second round, we couldn’t hear the bell. The fight just felt a lot closer. It is what it is though.

“Going into the fifth round I thought it was close. I feel like I could have maybe put myself in harm’s way more. I could have taken more chances, but I didn’t want to take too many risks. I thought I fought smart. I tried to win.”

In the co-main event, Paulo Costa (15-4) snapped a three-match losing streak, defeating Roman Kopylov for a middleweight division win by a unanimous decision.

Daniel Rodriguez (20-5) won his third consecutive fight after a unanimous decision over Kevin Holland in welterweight action in a significant upset. Rodriguez was +425 to win the fight, but beat Holland (28-14), who lost his second fight of 2025.

In the featherweight division, Patricio Freire beat Dan Ige by a unanimous decision. Freire (37-8) dominated the three-round fight, taking down Ige five times.

The five-fight main card opened with a unanimous decision upset win by Michael Johnson over Daniel Zellhuber in the lightweight action. Johnson opened the fight +475 according to Bet MGM. Johnson (25-19) landed 81 strikes compared to only 52 from Zellhuber as he won his third consecutive fight.