The Ultimate Fighting Championship is in New Orleans tonight with a 14-fight card at Smoothie King Center, where Lafayette native Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier will square off against Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway in a historic battle between two of the promotion’s all-time legends.

Holloway’s BMF belt will be on the line and the scrap will be Poirier’s last in the Octagon to cap a storied career that’ll see him inducted the UFC Hall of the Fame sooner rather than later. It’ll also complete a trilogy between the two sluggers, with Holloway looking to avenge a pair of losses.

As of early Saturday afternoon, most books had Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) installed as a favorite in the -130 to -142 range, with Poirier sporting +120 underdog odds at DraftKings. FanDuel had the total at 4.5 rounds (‘over’ -140, ‘under’ +110), while the prop for the fight to go the distance had ‘yes’ at -122 with ‘no’ at -104.

The 36-year-old Poirier (30-9-0-1 MMA, 22-8-0-1 UFC) defeated Holloway in the Hawaiian’s Octagon debut with a first-round submission (triangle armbar) at UFC 143 on Feb. 4 of 2012.

When Khabib Nurmagomedov was issued a nine-month suspension for the post-fight melee after his fourth-round submission victory over Conor McGregor to retain the 155-pound belt, the promotion booked a rematch between Poirier and Holloway for the interim lightweight title in the UFC 236 headline in Atlanta. Poirier won a unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46).

Since losing to McGregor via first-round knockout in a featherweight scrap at UFC 178 in 2014, Poirier has competed in the 155-pound loop. He’s compiled a 14-5 record with one no-contest. Three of those five defeats have come against former lightweight champions in Nurmagomedov, Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev.

The other losses came vs. Michael Johnson and Justin Gaethje, who is a former BMF champ and interim lightweight champ. He has defeated the likes of McGregor (twice), Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler, Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller and King Green.

Poirier is off a fifth-round submission loss (brabo choke) to Makhachev last June at UFC 302. After considering retirement, he decided to fight one last time in his home state.

The battle vs. Makhachev was given Fight of the Night honors. Poirier has taken home an extra 50K for FOTN honors in three of his last four outings, and he’s now tied with Edson Barboza for the most FOTN bonuses in UFC history with 10.

Poirier’s 15 career fight-night bonuses are tied for the fourth-most in UFC history along with Miller and Joe Lauzon. ‘The Diamond’s name is all over the UFC record books. He’s tied for the fifth-most wins in UFC history (22), the fifth-most finishes (15), the fifth-most knockdowns (14).

Poirier is tied with Drew Dober for the most KO wins (nine) in UFC lightweight history. He’s tied with Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Amanda Nunes for the most finishes against current, former or future UFC champions with six.

Poirier’s 30 career wins have included 15 KOs and eight submissions. He’s been finished seven times, losing via submission four times and via KO three times.

The 33-year-old Holloway is also in bounce-back mode in this spot. He had his three fight-winning streak snapped in a third-round KO loss vs. Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title at UFC 308 last October.

It was the first career KO loss for Holloway. In fact, it was the first time he’s been finished since Poirier submitted him in his promotional debut.

Holloway won the BMF belt by scoring a fifth-round KO win over Gaethje at the buzzer in a 155-pound showdown at UFC 300. It was his first time fighting at lightweight since the loss to Poirier in Atlanta in 2019.

‘Blessed’ has 12 career wins by KO and two by submission. He owns wins over the likes of ‘The Korean Zombie,’ Arnold Allen, Yair Rodriguez, Calvin Kattar, Jose Aldo (twice), Brian Ortega, Pettis, Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas, Oliveira, Cub Swanson, Clay Collard, Cole Miller and Andre Fili.

PREDICTION: I’ll readily concede that Holloway is much better prepared to fight as a lightweight than he was when he lost to Poirier in 2019. That was clear in his win over Gaethje. I don’t believe that Poirier has lost a step, though, and that was evident in his hotly contested loss to Makhachev. He’s not retiring because he doesn’t have it anymore. Poirier is doing what very few fighters do – retiring early. As we know, it’s much better for your long-term health to retire early in combat spots. There are brutal consequences for retiring too late. He’s going out on his terms, and he’ll do so with another victory tonight. I’m on Poirier at +120 underdog odds (DraftKings) for three units to win 3.6 units. Let’s f’g go!!

**Other Picks**

-I’m on a three-leg parlay risking one unit to win 1.59 units with Kevin Holland (-600), Dan Ige (-220) and Brendan Allen (-190).

-Michael Johnson is the older dude by far, but he’s in quality form with back-to-back wins and three wins in last four outings. I’ll risk 0.2 units to win one unit on Johnson as a +500 underdog vs. Daniel Zellhuber.

–Let’s risk 0.95 units to win 0.5 units on Allen as a -190 favorite. I’ll also risk 0.5 units to win 0.6 units on Allen to win by decision (+120 odds). And even though Marvin Vettori has never been finished and 14 of his 16 UFC contests have gone the distance, I’ll also risk 0.2 units to win one unit on Allen to win by submission (+500 payout). Allen has collected 14 of his 24 career wins via submissions.

-In a middleweight clash on the Early Prelims, I’ll risk 1.35 units to win one unit on Brunno Ferreira to win by KO vs. Jackson McVey, who is making his promotional debut. Ferreira has nine of his 13 career wins by KO.

**B.E.’s Bonus Octagon Nuggets**

–This might be the best Cold Open the UFC has ever produced!

–My UFC Nashville picks cashed at a 5-5 clip, but it was profit galore with +3.96 units thanks to the spectacular performance by Derrick Lewis as a lucrative underdog in the main event. It was the full Black Beast Experience and it was nothing short of spectacular!

-The Early Prelims will be on ESPN2 starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. The Prelims will get going at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, while the pay-per-per view portion of the card is on ESPN+ at 10:00 p.m. ET.