It will be his last appearance in the cage! Dustin Poirier will fight his last UFC fight against Max Holloway at UFC 318 on Saturday (July 19) in New Orleans.
Here’s all the info you need on UFC 318 and Poirier’s farewell performance: broadcast and time, the fight card with the four preliminary fights, and the predictions with betting odds for Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier.
UFC 318: Date, time, broadcast
When is UFC 318?
The 2025 UFC calendar has a very special event to offer this weekend with UFC 318. Cage veteran Dustin Poirier will fight his last fight.
UFC 318 will take place on Saturday, July 19, 2025, in New Orleans (USA). The venue is the Smoothie King Center.
The main event will be Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway, who will battle it out for the unofficial “BMF” title.
View this post on Instagram
Broadcast & Time: Who is showing UFC 318 live?
In Germany, UFC events are broadcast in their entirety on the sports streaming service DAZN. This also applies to the UFC 318 broadcast.
DAZN will begin broadcasting UFC 318 on Saturday night (July 20) at midnight.
The DAZN broadcast of UFC 318 includes the preliminary fights, the four fights on the main card, and, of course, the Holloway vs. Poirier duel, which will begin at 6:00 a.m. German time. The commentary/expert duo will be Sebastian Hackl and Peter Sobotta.
Before that, DAZN will also exclusively broadcast the heavyweight world championship boxing match between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
A second option for watching UFC 318 this weekend is UFC Fightpass.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s in-house streaming service will broadcast the entire event live – from the first fight of the preliminaries to the main card bouts and the title fight between Holloway and Poirier.
UFC Fightpass also offers comprehensive coverage of UFC 318 with interviews and analysis. All with original US commentary.
The UFC 318 Fight Card
The main card of the UFC 318 Fight Card begins with the lightweight bout between Michael Johnson and Daniel Zellhuber. This will be followed by the featherweight duel between Dan Ige and Patrício Pitbull.
When the two are done with each other, welterweights Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez will enter the cage, followed by the co-main event, which will see Paulo Costa take on Roman Kopylov.
This will be followed by Dustin Poirier’s last cage appearance, in which he will face Max Holloway for the third time.
At UFC 318 in New Orleans on Saturday, Dustin Poirier will step into the Octagon for the last time in competition.
The 36-year-old American from Lafayette, Louisiana, has been active in the UFC since January 2011 (!). “The Diamond” has often shone brightly in the lightweight division, but he has never made it to the top.
Poirier has had three title fights in his UFC career, all three of which he lost: in 2019 against Khabib, in 2021 against Charles Oliveira, and most recently in June 2014 against Islam Makhachev. He also failed to win the symbolic BMF title against Justin Gaethje in 2023.
Poirier quickly got over his defeat against Khabib, going on to celebrate three consecutive victories and destroying Conor McGregor twice in the process. After his defeat against Oliveira, however, things didn’t go so well for Poirier – he only won two of his next four fights. That’s why he’s no longer at the top of the UFC rankings.
Now he has another chance to be crowned at UFC 318 against Holloway – even if it’s only the unofficial “BMF” belt.
Max Holloway is a multiple featherweight champion who keeps trying his hand at lightweight. And he still has two scores to settle with Dustin Poirier. This is also why he was chosen as Poirier’s opponent for his farewell performance.
Holloway and Poirier first faced each other in the cage in February 2012. Poirier won by submission. The second duel took place in April 2019, and Poirier was again the winner.
However, if the UFC 318 predictions and the Holloway vs. Poirier betting odds from the bookmakers are anything to go by, there is likely to be a different winner in the third encounter. Holloway is sent into the cage as the slight favorite!
The 33-year-old from Hawaii has won three of his last four cage fights, but lost his last one. In the featherweight title fight in October 2024, he was knocked out in round 3 by Ilia Topuria.
One of these three victories was celebrated by “The Blessed” against Justin Gaethje, which also secured him the imaginary BMF title – which is now at stake against Poirier at UFC 318.
Holloway vs. Poirier head-to-head
However, Poirier will do everything he can in his “last dance” to retire from MMA with a victory – and finally with a gold belt in his hands.
Both are excellent stand-up fighters with tremendous striking power. The two are among the leaders in numerous UFC statistics, so this is a clash between two fighters of almost equal strength.
For example, Poirier has the third-most significant strikes in UFC lightweight history (1268) and has defeated five former UFC champions to date.
Holloway has the most wins (20) and the most knockouts (9) in UFC featherweight history, and he also holds the record for the most strikes (3706) and the most “significant strikes” (3457) in UFC history!
