Dustin Poirier bids farewell to the octagon when he battles Max Holloway in his final ever MMA fight at UFC 318.
“Diamond” is hanging up his gloves after UFC 318 at the end of an incredible 16-year career in MMA.
In that time, Dustin Poirier became a fan-favorite to UFC fans and even won the Interim UFC Light championship in 2019 from his upcoming opponent.
This fight will be Poirier’s third bout against Max Holloway, where he will be hoping to make it 3-0 at the top of a packed card at UFC 318.
However, Holloway is a different fighter from their earlier bouts and is now considered one of the greatest Featherweights in UFC history. He will want to finally get a win over Poirier in what will be a tense and emotional main event.
Ahead of UFC 318, the experts at Bloody Elbow have made their staff picks for the two main event fights, as well as the Performance of the Night and the Fight of the Night.
Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier 3 prediction
- Jamie Theodosi – Max Holloway
- Donagh Corby – Max Holloway
- Jordan Ellis – Max Holloway
- Ross Markey – Max Holloway
While it would be a fantastic story to see Poirier going out with a win, the Bloody Elbow experts have unanimously predicted that Holloway will leave UFC 318 with the win.
Poirier hasn’t fought since losing to Islam Makhachev in June last year, as he missed out on the chance to become the UFC Lightweight champion proper.
“Diamond” has had a mixed record in the last few years, losing three of his last five fights since winning back-to-back bouts against Conor McGregor, in what were some of Poirier’s best performances to date.
This poor record at the end of his career hints that Holloway will win the fight against Poirier, at the third time of asking.
The Hawaiian fighter was on a three-strike win streak before being knocked out by Ilia Topuria, although it is hard to hold that loss against him, given how dominant Topuria has been since.
This should be a close fight between two icons of the UFC, but it is hard to look past Holloway when picking the winner in Poirier’s swansong.
Paulo Costa vs Roman Kopylov prediction
- Jamie Theodosi – Paulo Costa
- Donagh Corby – Paulo Costa
- Jordan Ellis – Roman Kopylov
- Ross Markey – Paulo Costa
The co-main event of UFC 318 has been moved around a lot before finding its home just before Poirier’s final fight.
Paulo Costa vs Roman Kopylov was supposed to take place at UFC 317 before being moved to UFC 319, then back to this show on July 19.
Jordan is backing Kopylov to win the bout after picking up back-to-back wins in his last fights, while Costa is still licking his wounds after his UFC 302 loss to Sean Strickland.
Despite his record of four losses in his past five fights, Jamie, Donagh, and Ross are all predicting Costa to end his poor form to beat Kopylov in the fight, turning the tables on the Russian and ending his own good form in the process.
Fight of the Night
- Jamie Theodosi – Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier
- Donagh Corby – Dan Ige vs Patricio Pitbull
- Jordan Ellis – Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier
- Ross Markey – Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier
The main event is expected to be the best Fight of the Night at UFC 318, with Jamie, Jordan, and Ross all predicting it to win that night’s bonus.
Their previous two matches both impressed, and this being Poirier’s last fight, he will want to go all out to put on the best performance he can, even if he doesn’t walk out the winner.
However, Donagh thinks that the undercard bout between Dan Ige and Patricio Pitbull will win the Fight of the Night bonus.
Pitbull suffered defeat in his UFC debut, and time is running out to make himself a fixture in the promotion.
He will need to be at his best to take on Ige, who will hope to build on his KO win at UFC 314 to catapult himself towards a title shot, at the Brazilian’s expense.
Performance of the Night
- Jamie Theodosi -Daniel Zellhuber
- Donagh Corby – Daniel Rodriguez
- Jordan Ellis – Dan Ige
- Ross Markey – Dan Ige
The experts have three different picks for who will win the coveted Performance of the Night bonus at UFC 318.
Jamie is predicting Daniel Zellhuber to earn the Performance of the Night bonus when he takes on Michael Johnson.
The Mexican fighter is 3-2 in his UFC career so far, and he will hope to build some momentum against a fighter who handily beat his last two opponents to end a poor run of results.
Meanwhile, Donagh is backing Daniel Rodriguez to earn a $50,000 bonus at UFC 318. He is fighting the impressive Kevin Holland, who is deadly in the octagon but is susceptible when facing a top fighter, as Rodriguez hopes to be.
“D-Rod” has a history in boxing and is deadly with his hands in the UFC, so he will be aiming for a knockout win against Holland at UFC 318.
Finally, both Ellis and Ross think that Ige will have too much for Pitbull on July 19 and will put away the Bellator legend, potentially for good, in his second UFC fight.