UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3 is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on July 19, 2025, at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
Background.
The event will mark the promotion's sixth visit to New Orleans and first since in June 2015.
Former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway will put his symbolic "BMF" ("baddest motherfucker") title on the line against former interim UFC Lightweight Champion Dustin Poirier in a lightweight bout in the main event. This will be their third meeting and Poirier's retirement fight. The pairing first met at UFC 143 in February 2012, when Holloway made his promotional debut and lost by a triangle-armbar submission. Their second outing was in April 2019 at UFC 236 when Poirier became the interim lightweight champion after winning via unanimous decision, which also ended Holloway's 13-fight win streak.
A middleweight bout between former UFC Middleweight Championship challenger Marvin Vettori and former LFA Middleweight Champion Brendan Allen is scheduled to take place at the event. The pairing was previously scheduled to headline in April 2024, but Vettori withdrew due to an injury.
A welterweight bout between Islam Dulatov and Adam Fugitt is expected to take place at the event. The pairing was previously scheduled to meet at in last February, but Dulatov was forced to withdraw due to a serious injury.
A light heavyweight bout between Jimmy Crute and Marcin Prachnio is scheduled for this event. They were originally scheduled to compete in February at UFC 312 but Prachnio had to withdraw from the fight for unknown reasons.
A middleweight bout between Ateba Abega Gautier and Robert Valentin is scheduled for this event. They were briefly scheduled to compete at one week prior, but the pairing was moved to this event for unknown reasons.
A women's strawweight bout between Amanda Ribas and Tabatha Ricci was scheduled for this event. However, the bout was moved to one week later for unknown reasons.
A middleweight bout between former title challenger Paulo Costa and Roman Kopylov was scheduled for UFC 317. However the bout was moved to this event for unknown reasons.
Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez are scheduled to meet in a welterweight bout at this event. The pairing was first booked at in May 2020, but Holland pulled out due to injury. They were then expected to meet again in September 2022 at UFC 279 in a catchweight bout of 180 pounds. However, the promotion opted to book them on short notice against different opponents at the same event, mainly due to Khamzat Chimaev missing weight by nearly 10 pounds for his headliner bout (Holland and Chimaev ended up facing each other in the co-main event).
A middleweight bout between Ikram Aliskerov and Brunno Ferreira was scheduled for this event. However on June 30, Aliskerov withdrew from the fight due to a broken toe and it is unsure if a replacement will be found or not.