Dustin Poirier's retirement card reportedly adds banger fight

UFC 318 has caught a lot of flak for being a lackluster PPV, but reports of a featherweight addition lend some strength to the New Orleans event.

Headlined by Dustin Poirier's retirement trilogy against Max Holloway, UFC 318 looks a little weak, with eleven fights announced thus far, and hardly any household names.

A new report suggests an elite featherweight matchup is coming to the card...

Tom Aspinall says fight news is coming and he’s no Michael Chandler

Yair Rodriguez fighting Patricio Pitbull — Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Report: Dan Ige vs. Patricio Pitbull added to UFC 318

Dan Ige is set to take on ex-Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull at UFC 318 in New Orleans. The news was first reported by Léo Guimaraes, and later given credence by MMA Junkie.

EXCLUSIVO: Patricio Pitbull enfrenta Dan Ige no UFC 318, em 19 de julho pic.twitter.com/vA7epzoGme
— Léo Guimaraes (@leoguimaraesmma) June 3, 2025

Pitbull made his UFC debut at UFC 314, where he was on the losing end of a decision to Yair Rodriguez. Perhaps joining the promotion a little too late into his career, Pitbull failed to pick up the pace and let Rodriguez pull ahead on the scorecards, almost losing by TKO in the process.

With the introduction of Ige-Pitbull, UFC 318 is up to twelve fights (subject to change):

Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier; light BMF
Marvin Vettori vs. Brendan Allen; middle
Dan Ige vs. Patricio Pitbull; feather reported
Adam Fugitt vs. Islam Dulatov; welter
Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferreira; middle
Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson; welter
Kyler Phillips vs. Vinicius Oliveira; bantam
Carli Judice vs. Nicolle Caliari; fly
Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio; light heavy
Francisco Prado vs. Nikolay Veretennikov; welter
Michael Johnson vs. Daniel Zellhuber; light
Ateba Gautier vs. Robert Valentin; middle

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