Poirier loses to Holloway in UFC 318 retirement fight

Justin Poirier couldn’t unafraid a imagination sendoff successful last combat of his 16-year storied UFC career, losing to Max Holloway.

The trilogy combat betwixt Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier whitethorn not person been a microcosm of their archetypal 2 encounters, but it delivered an electrifying last 15 seconds erstwhile Holloway and the retiring Poirier traded blows successful the 5th round.

The effect was a triumph for lightweight Holloway by unanimous determination connected the 3 judges’ cards – 48-47, 49-46, 49-46 – astatine UFC 318 successful New Orleans connected Saturday night.

Holloway (27-8 MMA) was classy successful triumph against Poirier, arsenic helium had mislaid the archetypal 2 fights of the bid earlier returning the favour successful Louisiana autochthonal Poirier’s past mixed martial arts bout.

“The baddest antheral alive, bro,” said Holloway, 33. “Give it up for Dustin Poirier.”

A first-round knockdown from the Hawaiian acceptable the code aboriginal arsenic Holloway astir finished Poirier (30-10), but his 36-year-old hostile persevered.

By the 4th round, Poirier had small vigor near but admitted post-fight that helium was impressed that the erstwhile featherweight champion Holloway’s striking was inactive arsenic crisp arsenic ever. According to the last stats connected the broadcast, Holloway outlanded Poirier 113-99 successful important caput strikes.

“I thought helium was going to beryllium successful present cracking a small spot harder, which helium was,” Poirier said of Holloway. “This feline is pugnacious to woody with erstwhile he’s successful beforehand of you. He’s slick. He’s crafty. He’s fast. He’s the [BMF] champ. I got thing but respect for Max, man. He’s 1 of the bully guys.”

Holloway made his archetypal defence of the “BMF” rubric a palmy 1 since winning it past April astatine UFC 300. It is unclear what absorption the loop takes, arsenic it is not associated with a part and has been utilized infrequently since November 2019.

Poirier, left, and Max Holloway speech strikes during their lightweight bout astatine UFC 318 [Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images via AFP]

In earlier matches, Paulo Costa of Brazil got backmost successful the triumph file with a unanimous determination implicit Roman Kopylov, utilising his boxing to expanse the cards 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. Costa (15-4) remains successful the middleweight rubric picture, portion Kopylov (14-4) has won his past 2 fights.

The adjacent 2 fights besides saw different drawstring of decisions, with welterweight Daniel Rodriguez outlasting Kevin Holland contempt a precocious rally from Holland, astir finishing him successful the 3rd circular with strikes. The cards work 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, arsenic Holland (28-14) was different betting favourite astatine the disbursal of Rodriguez (20-5).

Patricio Pitbull earned his archetypal UFC triumph with a triumph by unanimous determination implicit featherweight Dan Ige by identical 29-28 scores. Pitbull’s wrestling was excessively overmuch for Ige, who entered the combat having mislaid 2 of his past 3 fights. Pitbull (37-8) past fought successful April astatine UFC 314, wherever Ige (19-10) earned a triumph connected the aforesaid card.

UFC 318’s pay-per-view got nether mode with lightweight Michael Johnson earning a unanimous determination successful an upset of Daniel Zellhuber. The 39-year-old Johnson (24-19) was a important underdog entering the combat but won the cards with matching 29-28 scores. A second-round knockdown swung the combat successful Johnson’s favour, arsenic Zellhuber (15-3) has present mislaid back-to-back outings.