Poirier to retire after BMF title fight against Holloway at UFC 318
Poirier to retire after BMF title fight against Holloway at UFC 318
Dustin Poirier will enter the UFC octagon for the final time on July 20 (IST) in New Orleans at UFC 318.
The 36-year-old will face Max Holloway, who will put his BMF title on the line for the first time since defeating Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 last year.
“There’s not a better guy I could think to fight in my retirement fight. He’s a legend, former [undisputed] champion, and current BMF champion, so we’re going to put on another war,” Poirier said on The Pat McAfee Show, formally announcing the bout.
The full fight card for UFC 318 is yet to be confirmed.
For Holloway, this marks the start of a permanent move to the lightweight division from featherweight. A win over a contender like Poirier would immediately place the former featherweight champion among the elite in his new weight class.
The two first met almost 13 years ago at UFC 143, when Holloway, then 20, made his promotional debut. Poirier, an emerging featherweight prospect at the time, submitted the Hawaiian in the first round with a triangle armbar, securing his fourth consecutive UFC win.
They faced off again in 2019, with the interim featherweight title at stake. Poirier completed the double over Holloway, winning by unanimous decision at UFC 236.
Holloway is 1–3 in his last four fights, most recently losing a featherweight title bout to Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 in October, where he suffered the first knockout defeat of his career.
Poirier, meanwhile, has alternated between wins and losses in his last five fights against top competition. His most recent victory came against Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299 in March 2024.
