UFC318 at the Smoothie King Centre in New Orleans, Louisiana, was only the sixth visit of the UFC and the first since June 2015. This visit, and main event marked the retirement fight of hometown hero Dustin Poirier, following a 15-year career with the company.
The main event would also be a trilogy between Poirier and Max Holloway for the BMF title. The two fighters had previously met at UFC143 in 2012, where Poirier won via a first-round triangle choke submission. Then again, at UFC236 in 2019, Poirier also won that via a five-round unanimous decision to claim the interim lightweight title.
There were 14 fights at this event, six were stoppages, including three submissions, and eight went the distance, including one split decision.
TOP PERFORMER: MAX HOLLOWAY
Although it wasn’t one of the six fights that ended in a stoppage, for the circumstances and the performance, Holloway was my top performer. Fighting a hometown hero in his retirement fight, a guy whom he has lost to twice, had to play some mental games.
However, Holloway doesn’t take defending the BMF title lightly, and from the first bell, he went out and dominated Poirier. Although Dustin had his moments, Holloway could have stopped him in the first round and had several other opportunities during the fight that had Poirier fighting to survive.
Even in the last ten seconds of the fight, Holloway did his traditional point to the canvas and invited his opponent to swing, giving Poirier a chance for a KO win in a fight he was easily losing. But even then, Holloway got the better of Dustin to close the show for an impressive points victory.
TOP PERFORMER 2: ATEBA ABEGA GAUTIER
The Cameroonian striker, aptly nicknamed the “silent assassin”, is already making a name for himself with just two fights in the UFC. This win made it two fights, two first-round victories with a combined fight time of under five minutes.
After an impressive debut, he followed that up with a devastating and systematic beat down of his opponent Robert Valentin, in a brutal and explosive combination of right and left hooks, uppercuts and body shots in a short exhibition of precision striking.
Valentin had no chance and was outgunned from the first bell as Gautier looked like a man on a mission as he walked forward and walked through his opponent with his power striker to stop his opponent in just over a minute.
TOP PERFORMER 3: JIMMY CRUTE
In the light heavyweight division, although you’ve seen good submission victories, you never quite expect fights in that division to end with a slick armbar, but that’s exactly what we got, and it was as impressive as it was unexpected.
Crute was on a run of five fights and no victory, which saw three defeats and two draws. His opponent, Marcin Prachino, was on a run of three wins and three defeats in his last six fights, so we were not sure how this fight would go, which added to the intrigue.
However, after showing his skills on the feet, he transitioned to his ground game and managed to lock in a deep armour. Prachino did his best to fight it amongst intense pain, but as the round was drawing to a close, Crute moved, turned and looked in deeper, forcing Prachino to tap for a long overdue victory.
Honourable Mentions
Islam Dulatov impressed in his UFC debut after obtaining a contract on the Dana White contender series in October 2024. Coming into it with a fierce reputation, he lived up to that with an impressive first-round victory, dropping his opponent with a stiff left hook, then putting him out with some brutal straight shots on the ground to make it eleven first-round finishes in his thirteen-fight career.
Carli Judice opened the card with a gruelling but eyebrow-raising three-round TKO victory against a game opponent in Nicolle Caliari. In a fight that started as a back-and-forth battle, Judice took control with some impressive striking to get the upper hand and eventually stopped Caliari in the third round with a brutal knee to the body.
