Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori left it all in the cage at UFC 318, and they walked away with an extra $50,000 each for their efforts. The middleweight clash stole the spotlight on a card loaded with highlight-reel moments, earning the Fight of the Night honors over some stiff competition.
Allen outworked Vettori across three rounds on the prelims, battering the Italian while Vettori stood firm and fired back, living up to his reputation as one of the toughest men in the division. Allen sealed the win via unanimous decision, securing his first-ever Fight of the Night bonus, while Vettori picked up his third.
“I mean, he can still crack,” Max Holloway said after his main event war with Dustin Poirier. “He still hits hard as shit. You saw what happened in that third round. Even the first round, too, I was like, oh yeah, I got him. And then I was like, what the hell, bro? This guy kept coming back. I kept forgetting this is his retirement fight, his name’s The Diamond, so I’m happy we got to give the guy the five-round war.”
Max Holloway Reacts to UFC 318 Bonus Snub, UFC CEO Dana White
Despite their unforgettable UFC 318 battle, Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier didn’t receive a post-fight bonus. Instead, UFC awarded Performance of the Night bonuses to Ateba Gautier, Islam Dulatov, and Carli Judice. Gautier made quick work of Robert Valentin, needing just 70 seconds to finish the fight. Dulatov crushed Adam Fugitt with a first-round KO, and Judice delivered a nasty body shot to put away Nicolle Caliari in the third round of their bout.
Max Holloway was not to happy about this snub and blasted UFC CEO Dana White for this dismissal.
“I hope you guys gave shit to Dana. How the hell did we not get Fight of the Night? What is he thinking? Come on, Dana.”
Still, much of the emotional weight of UFC 318 rested on Holloway vs. Poirier 3. The fight marked Poirier’s retirement, and Holloway closed the curtain on another legend’s career with respect and grit.
“I’m pretty happy,” Holloway said. “Like I said, though, it sucks, I came in here to be spoiler, that’s what I’m going to do, but it sucks to do it against a man like him. I had to do it against Korean Zombie and now I do it against Dustin. These guys are just great people. Forget what they did in the fight game, they’re just great human beings. They’re just great people and I’ve got nothing but love and respect for him and what he did. He is a BMF in every sense of the word.”
“He was up 2-0, done, gave me the opportunity to get him back in the last fight, that’s what BMFs do. And he got to walk out with Weezy. He got Weezy to put the belt on us, so that’s pretty amazing.”
Holloway’s future remains open. After back-to-back lightweight wins—including his historic BMF knockout over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300—he looks ready for another run. Though Ilia Topuria knocked him out at featherweight, the Hawaiian isn’t ruling out a rematch now that Topuria holds the lightweight belt.
“I’ve been telling you guys all week, this sport is about having moments,” Holloway said. “I’m glad I went here, I did this moment, and we’ll see what happens. If it’s Ilia, the ball is in the UFC’s court. I’m down for whatever. If it’s Ilia, it’s Ilia. If it’s the guy that he just beat, Oliveira, I have history with him. The whole top 10, there’s a lot of fun fights for me here at lightweight and I’m excited.”
