Wai‘anae native Max Holloway took the octagon to a string of boos before outlasting Dustin Poirier in a five-round battle to defend his UFC BMF belt in the main event of UFC 318 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Saturday night.
Holloway secured the victory with a 48-47, 49-46, 49-46 unanimous decision to successfully defend the BMF belt, improving to 27-8 in his career. He got everything he wanted out of the night, playing the obligatory villain in front of Poirier's hometown crowd while securing the victory.
Holloway's post-fight interview in the octagon was brief, diverting the attention back to Poirier, who took off his gloves and dropped them in the middle of the octagon to ceremoniously mark his retirement.
A minute and a half into the first round, Holloway dropped Poirier, which contributed to his first round victory on the judge's scorecards.
Although Holloway continued to have his way with Poirier in the second, Poirier electrified the hometown crowd with a knockdown of Holloway in the closing seconds of the round.
In the end, Holloway ultimately had the striking advantage over Poirier, landing 198 significant strikes to Poirier's 109. The fight closed with Holloway doing his signature point down move with 10 seconds remaining.
The lightweight fight between Poirier and Holloway was for Holloway's BMF belt, which he secured at UFC 300. UFC 318 was the first UFC event in New Orleans in over a decade. Poirier's professional mixed martial arts career ends with 30 wins, 10 losses and one no contest.
Despite the entertainment value of the fight, it did not take home any of the UFC's nightly bonuses. A preliminary middleweight bout between Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori was Fight of the Night, while Performance of the Night bonuses were given to Ateba Abega Gautier, Islam Dulatov, and Carli Judice.
In the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dan White announced that the event had a sold-out crowd of 18,138, while its gate of $8.09 million was the highest in Smoothie King Center history.
Following the bout, White praised Holloway and Poirier for an entertaining main event, then went on to mention that many possibilities exist for Holloway's next fight.
"It was an incredible fight," White said. "I thought going into the the last round, the fight was closer than the judges had it, but, yeah, I mean, it lived up to what it was supposed to be. There were so many of those moments in that fight where either guy could've won."
"I think (Holloway) is in a great position right now. Just defended that BMF title. Anything is possible for Max right now."
As he's done all week, Holloway paid his respects to Poirier, finally getting a win over him in a trilogy that dates back to 2012.
"I know I had to beg for the boos, and I'm glad I did," Holloway said. "He deserves it. Like I said, if this was in Hawai‘i, brother, you guys are getting booed."
Holloway compared his win over Poirier to his victory over Chan Sung Jung in 2023, another fight where Holloway won over a retiring fighter.
"It sucks. I cam in here to be spoiler and that's what I'm gonna do but it sucks to do it to men like them. These guys are great people," Holloway said. "Forget what they did in the fight game. They're just great human beings and great people. (Poirier) is a BMF in every sense of the word. He was 2-0 (against Holloway) and gave me the opportunity to get him in the last fight. That's what BMFs do."
Grammy-winning rap artist Lil Wayne walked Poirier out for the fight and agreed to place the belt on the winner of the fight, which turned out to be Holloway. Afterwards, Holloway expressed a desire to challenge current lightweight and former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria in a rematch. Topuira knocked out Holloway last October to defend his featherweight crown.
In his post-fight press conference, Poirier disagreed with the wide gap in the judge's scorecards but had no regrets in how the fight, or his career as a whole, played out.
"Obviously I wanted to win," Poirier said. "Max is a great fighter, tough competitor. I just felt being inside the eye of the storm, it felt a lot closer to me. I really thought it might have been 2-2 going into the into the fifth.
"Competing with the best guy in the world, and I thought it was close. I felt good in there. Cardio felt good. My movement felt good. I wanted to go show that I can compete and make it close to where I can say, 'Hey, look, I'm still at the top of my game.' I'm going out because I wanted it to be a war and a drag 'em out fight."
Also at UFC 318, Kahuku alum and Hale‘iwa native Dan Ige fell to Patricio "Pitbull" Freire via unanimous decision. Ige dropped to 19-10, while Freire improved to 37-8.
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
