
Max Holloway retains UFC BMF title, spoils Dustin Poirier's retirement fight
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Max Holloway said he wanted to play spoiler and he did it Saturday night in the main event.
Holloway defeated Dustin Poirier in a unanimous decision to retain the UFC BMF Championship in UFC 318 at the Smoothie King Center.
The win for Holloway is the first in three fights against Poirier, who beat him in 2012 and 2019.
Holloway (28-8) retained his BMF title after landing 98 more strikes (201-109) and landing 53% of his significant strikes.
Fighting against a partisan Louisiana crowd for the native son Poirier in his retirement match, Holloway was the quicker fighter for the entire match, knocking Poirier off his feet early in the first round.
In the second, another flurry of combinations put Poirier on the mat again, followed by two minutes of dominant grappling.
Poirier's best chance came in the last 30 seconds of the second round, getting Holloway on the ground with a chokehold and several ground punches before the round ended.
The loss ends a brilliant career for Poirier, who finishes his career with a 30-10 record. Poirier, the UFC Lightweight Interim Champion in 2019, also defeated the likes of Connor McGregor twice in addition to victories over Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler.
In the co-main event, Paulo Costa (15-4) snapped a three-match losing streak, defeating Roman Kopylov for a middleweight division win by a unanimous decision.
Daniel Rodriguez (20-5) won his third consecutive fight after a unanimous decision over Kevin Holland in welterweight action in a significant upset. Rodriguez was +425 to win the fight, but beat Holland (28-14), who lost his second fight of 2025.
In the featherweight division, Patricio Freire beat Dan Ige by a unanimous decision. Freire (37-8) dominated the three-round fight, taking down Ige five times.
The five-fight main card opened with a unanimous decision upset win by Michael Johnson over Daniel Zellhuber in the lightweight action. Johnson opened the fight +475 according to Bet MGM. Johnson (25-19) landed 81 strikes compared to only 52 from Zellhuber as he won his third consecutive fight.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
5 times Donald Trump has been accused of cheating at golf
Well, it's happened again: Donald Trump has been accused of cheating at golf. There's a clip that's gone viral showing the United States president driving up in a golf cart while a caddie appears to drop a ball in front of a sand trap. We don't know anything about what's going on in the video, but it would be far from the first time that Trump was accused of cheating at the game of golf. We'll sum up a few times that accusations have flown from some famous names and celebrities. Here's a little bit of history as the video continues to get shared everywhere: Oscar De La Hoya This is way back from 2016, and here's the quote to the Associated Press: "Donald, what he does is he tees off first so we go off to our balls and what do we see but Donald Trump right in the middle of the fairway," De La Hoya said. "He said, 'Hey look, I found my first ball.'" On the next hole, a par-3, De La Hoya said Trump hit into some bushes and again went ahead of the other players in his cart. When the rest of the group got to the green, he said Trump's ball was 3 feet from the hole. "And by the way I'm picking it up," De La Hoya quoted Trump as saying. "It's a gimme." Various golfers Former Sports Illustrated scribe Rick Reilly wrote a book called Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump that has anecdotes like these (via 'I played with him once,' says Bryan Marsal, longtime Winged Foot member and chair of the coming 2020 Men's U.S. Open. 'It was a Saturday morning game. We go to the first tee and he couldn't have been nicer. But then he said, 'You see those two guys? They cheat. See me? I cheat. And I expect you to cheat because we're going to beat those two guys today.'… So, yes, it's true, he's going to cheat you. But I think Donald, in his heart of hearts, believes that you're gonna cheat him, too. So if it's the same, if everybody's cheating, he doesn't see it as really cheating.' Samuel L. Jackson The actor said this in 2016, via Page Six: Asked who the better golfer was, Jackson said with a smile, 'Oh, I am, for sure. I don't cheat.' Alice Cooper In 2012, the rock legend had this to say via News 12: In a 2012 interview with Q magazine, Cooper mentioned Trump's golf rule bending ways. "The worst celebrity golf cheat? I wish I could tell you that. It would be a shocker. I played golf with Donald Trump one time. That's all I'm going to say," he told the magazine.


USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
Video: Bella Mir stays unbeaten in MMA, makes opponent squeal with slick finish
Bella Mir made a brief parachute back into MMA on Sunday and notched another victory for her undefeated record. Mir, the daughter of former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, told MMA Junkie in June after a UFC BJJ event that she wants to be as active as possible across a variety of combat sports, with her main focus being on the wrestling mats as she pushed to make the 2028 Olympic team. In the interim, however, Mir (4-0) got back in the cage Fury FC Challenger Series 14 in Houston and overwhelmed an outmatched Stephanie Calderon (2-1). Mir isolated a limb for a nasty submission know to some as the "chicken wing," getting the tap at the 3:58 mark of Round 1. Check out a replay of Mir's victory below (via X): 'That's folkstyle wrestling right there – that's a chicken wing,' Mir said in her post-fight interview. 'I'm just glad I got to show my striking this fight because I just wanted to prove to people I could bang with really tough strikers like Stephanie. I see this as a really big win.' The 21-year-old has admitted that her eventual goal is to make it to the UFC and follow in the footsteps of her father by claiming a championship. She is taking the steady approach, however, and Mir said it could be a while before she gets back into an MMA setting in pursuit of her fifth professional win. 'Maybe next year, we'll go back at it again,' Mir said. 'This was fun. I can't wait.'


Associated Press
31 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Ground Game: AI scammers deepfake Trump officials, golf diplomacy, Vance sells tax bill
This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on July 28. You can subscribe at any time at This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on July 28. You can subscribe at any time at