During her UFC 318 preparation, Carli Judice identified it'd be the strike that would likely be the X-factor for her. Boy, was she right. Judice (5-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) topped off a brilliant performance with a crushing knee to the body that put Nicolle Caliari (8-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) away late.

The latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the UFC rankings toward contention and others fall away.

En route to the victory, Johnson scored a knockdown of Zellhuber (15-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC), which joined Melvin Guillard for the most knockdowns in UFC lightweight history with 13.

Spann (23-11 MMA, 9-6 UFC) submitted Lukasz Brzeski (9-7-1 MMA, 1-6 UFC) with a guillotine choke in the first round of Saturday's UFC 318 prelims at Smoothie King Center. Spann is relieved after his heavyweight debut didn't go his way, where he was knocked out by Waldo Cortes-Acosta in March.

Dustin Poirier’s retirement fight at UFC 318 was long in the making. The buildup began with Poirier’s emotional retirement announcement during the 2025 NFL Draft, where he revealed his final fight would take place in his home state of Louisiana,

Paulo Costa reveals gruesome leg damage after UFC 318 win, shocking fans with brutal injuries sustained during hard-fought octagon war.

Poirier (30-10 MMA, 22-9 UFC) didn't get his fairytale ending after losing a unanimous decision to Max Holloway (27-8 MMA, 23- 8 UFC) for the BMF title in Saturday's headliner at Smoothie King Center. However, that doesn't mean that Poirier isn't grateful for the experience of having his retirement fight in his home state of Louisiana.

Vinicius Oliveira quite literally dropped the mic after his UFC 318 win. "LokDog" isn't just a fighter. He's a rapper, too. One day after his victory over Kyler Phillips in New Orleans, Oliveira (23-3 MMA, 4-0 UFC) dropped a new single "Fenomenal" featuring Brazilian rapper B-Dynamitze.

Max Holloway was the first to admit he didn't exactly relish the idea of spoiling Dustin Poirier's final fight.

The full UFC 318 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included: Max Holloway: $42,000 def. Dustin Poirier: $32,000 Paulo Costa: $11,000 def. Roman Kopylov: $6,000 Daniel Rodriguez: $11,000 def. Kevin Holland: $21,000 Patricio Freire: $4,000 def. Dan Ige: $16,000 Michael Johnson: $21,000 def. Daniel Zellhuber: $6,000

Paulo Costa is back as a legitimate UFC middleweight title contender. Patricio Freire has no chance of ever being a UFC champion.Ateba Gautier has future UFC middleweight champion written all over him.