Live results, analysis of UFC 318: Poirier vs. Holloway 3

Dustin Poirier will ultimately be a UFC -Octagon in his home state Louisiana to face the BMF title on Saturday in the main event of UFC 318 (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV). “The Diamond” will lead his 31st MMA victory (all advertising campaigns) in his 41st professional appearance. Both Poirier and Holloway have 22 UFC victories. With a 23rd, a fighter will come to Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Charles Oliveira and Andrei Arlovski in second place on the career list.

Poirier and Holloway fought twice before, and Poirier saw his hand imposed on both occasions. In her first fight in 2012, Poirier welcomed the then 20-year-old Holloway with a triangular bracket in the first round. It is the only time that Holloway was submitted in his career. Seven years later, they met for the preliminary lightweight, and Poirier ended Holloway's 13-strong victory strip through unanimous decision.

This time Holloway will make his first defense of the BMF Belt, which he defeated Justin Gaethje for the last April. Holloway is the most active striker in UFC history with a UFC record of 3,457 significant strikes in 30 fights. He has landed over 100 significant strikes per fight in a record of 16 UFC fights.

Also on the main map, the middle weights Paulo Costa and Roman Kopylov, who end both opponents in an 86% clip, meet at the opposite ends of the impulse spectrum. Costa has lost four of his last five fights, including the current two-loss series, while Kopylov won his last two and five of his last seven fights.

Overall, New Orleans will increase the UFC fights between the preliminaries and the main tickets in stage 14. Follow Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim, while passing on all the sights and noises from the Smoothie King Center and delivering analyzes and results.