Kamaru Usman | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Kamaru Usman is finally stepping back in the cage.
On Friday, the UFC announced that Usman takes on surging welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Atlanta, which goes down on June 14 at State Farm Arena.
Usman (20-4) is a former welterweight champion, having held the title from 2019 until 2021, recording five defenses. However, “The Nigerian Nightmare” is currently on a three-fight losing streak and has not competed since losing to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 after accepting the bout up at middleweight and on short notice.
Buckley (21-6) has won six in a row since returning to the welterweight division in 2023, four by stoppage. Most recently, Buckley finished former interim champion Colby Covington in the main event of UFC Tampa in December.
A previously announced women’s flyweight bout between former two-time strawweight champion Rose Namajunas (13-7) and 12th-ranked contender Miranda Maverick (15-5) will serve as the co-headliner.
This will be the UFC’s fifth trip to Atlanta and first Fight Night event, with the previous four visits all being pay-per-view shows.
Check out the rest of the UFC Atlanta lineup below.
The future UFC Hall of Famer announced Friday that he is set to headline UFC 318 on July 19 in a trilogy bout with Holloway, with Holloway’s “BMF” belt on the line. Poirier has twice fought Holloway, defeating him at UFC 143 in Holloway’s octagon debut and then again at UFC 236 to win an interim lightweight title.
As much as Poirier respects Holloway, there was another trilogy bout he had in mind.
“I was asking for [Justin] Gaethje,” Poirier told MMA Junkie. “I was asking [UFC CBO Hunter Campbell] and the UFC for Gaethje because we’re 1-1, I wanted to close out that trilogy. For some reason, they really wanted this fight, so I said, ‘OK, that’s cool’ because I respect the guy from my last fight. I don’t know what their thought process was putting this together for me and Max, but I have a lot of respect for him, so it made sense to me.
“I said, ‘Legends only.’ He definitely fits that.”
Poirier and Justin Gaethje are even in their series, with Poirier winning their first meeting in April 2018 and Gaethje later avenging that loss with a powerful head kick knockout at UFC 291. Their rematch was for a vacant “BMF” belt, which Holloway later won from Gaethje.
The veteran’s request to only fight legends seemed to line up perfectly with former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria changing his name to “La Leyenda” (“The Legend” in English), but Poirier says it was never an option for him to welcome Topuria to the lightweight division despite his interest.
“Actually, when he said he was going to ‘55, I texted Hunter, I texted UFC, I said, ‘Hey, what’s up? Let me know what’s going on with this guy now he’s at ‘55,” Poirier said. “But they never entertained it, they told me it’s not happening, and they wanted Max.”
With his second crack at the BMF belt, Poirier is excited to add another piece of hardware to his collection. In fact, he’s not only hoping to capture that title for the first time, he’s hoping he’s the last fighter to ever lay claim to it.
“If I can get my hand, be the last BMF champion and ride off into the sunset with the belt and retire, hey, that’s forever,” Poirier said. “Because I don’t think they would ever do it again unless something crazy happened. That would be dope.”
Even if Holloway wasn’t the ideal opponent, Poirier can’t argue with the location for his final fight: New Orleans in his home state of Louisiana.
It’s been 10 years since Poirier most recently fought near his native Lafayette and he’s grateful for the UFC accommodating his wish to have his final fight take place where his career began.
“This is the dream,” Poirier said. “This is the plan. I’m the one who reached out to the UFC and said, ‘Hey, I would love to retire at home. To my surprise, they obliged and said, ‘OK, we’ll do everything we can to make it happen.’ It’s amazing when a company works with you like that and has respect for you enough to try to put things in motion because so many things in their schedule is booked up for the whole year previously. People don’t understand how much goes on behind the scenes. These dates and locations are pre-planned for a long time. For them to scrap something and bring the cage to Louisiana and set it up for me to retire at home, it’s a dream come true.”
On Saturday, Garry and Prates face off in the main event of UFC Kansas City, in a welterweight headliner with serious title implications. Should Garry win, he’s right back in the mix at 170 pounds following his narrow loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov, while if Prates wins, that’s five in a row for the Fighting Nerds representative who was an overnight sensation in 2024.
Who gets it done this weekend, and what about the rest of the action? Let’s dive into the best bets.
This pick hurts my soul, because Prates is a joy to watch and root for, but I think the Fighting Nerds momentum is about to face its first real setback.
Fans knock on Garry for a number of reasons — both reasonable and silly — but you can’t deny he’s an extremely talented young man. The Shavkat fight showed us just how talented as he very nearly took the 0 from the guy many people believe is a future champion. Some of that can come down to Rakhmonov being injured heading into the fight, but just as much of it is because Garry is very well-rounded and presents problems in all phases. That’s the concern for Prates.
“The Marlboro Man” — I’m coining this nickname — is the more dynamic and dangerous striker but he can be reckless, and Garry is dangerous in his own right on the feet. Moreover, Garry has the better grappling game, and probably the better cardio considering he doesn’t smoke all that often. That’s a lot of small advantages that add up to a Garry W on Saturday.
Muniz faces Ikram Aliskerov, and while Aliskerov is a rightful favorite, this is too big. Muniz has had some setbacks, but he remains a dangerous grappler, and Aliskerov is a good wrestler, but not an elite one. If Muniz can get ahold of Aliskerov, he’s going to have a decent shot at making something happen.
Chandler takes on Joselyne Edwards in the opening bout of the evening and these odds are way off. Edwards is not some world-beater, and she’s also not a great defensive wrestler. While Chandler has flaws, she can get takedowns and make this a gritty fight. Chandler has only lost to established names at 135, and while Edwards should maybe be the favorite, she shouldn’t be so by this much.
I also take not joy in writing this, but it must be done. On Saturday, Anthony Smith makes his final walk to the cage, and I don’t think it’s going to go well for him. Smith isn’t that old in real life, but he’s got a lot of miles on him and his chin — which was never legendary or anything — isn’t what it used to be.
Zhang is a big-time hitter who doesn’t get paid by the round. In fact, his past 15 fights have ell ended in the first frame of action. I expect nothing different this time around.
This is a simple math equation: Randy Brown is the better all-around fighter + Nicolas Dalby doesn’t get finished = Randy Brown by Points. Dalby is on a good run a form lately, but he’s old, and Brown is the more dynamic fighter. Should be a simple enough decision victory for “Rude Boy.”
Wrap Up
Sadly, FanDuel does not have lines up on the KSW fight between Mariusz Pudzianowski and Eddie Hall, but if they did, I’d be heavy on Eddie. Pudzianowski is obviously the real MMA fighter, but he’s also nearly 50 and giving up like 80 pounds.
Until next week, enjoy the fights, good luck, and gamble responsibly!
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On Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Poirier announced he will face Max Holloway for the BMF title in his final fight at Smoothie King Center in his backyard of New Orleans at UFC 318 on July 19.
“It’s going to be my final fight,” Poirier said. “I’m going to lay my gloves down in Louisiana where it all started for me. The whole journey started there, and I’m just honored the UFC was on the same page, the state of Louisiana was on the same page to make all of this work. ...
“July 19, me and Max Holloway are going to fight, five rounds, main event, pay-per-view for his BMF title.”
Poirier said following his loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 301 this past June. that he was down to his final fight, and he wanted it to happen in New Orleans. “The Diamond” got his wish as he looks to go 3-0 against Holloway.
Holloway is equally as pleased with the matchup and the opportunity to get some measure of revenge against Poirier, posting on social media that he’s happy to be Poirier’s final fight.
“Honored to be The Diamond’s Last Dance,” Holloway said.
“Blessed” returns to lightweight after capturing the BMF title with one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 in April 2024. Holloway went on to get stopped by Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 308 this past October in his final featherweight bout.
Eddie Hall and Mariusz Pudzianowski are set to battle it out in one of the most anticipated fights thus far in 2025, and if it’s up to KSW’s CEO, the stakes could be even bigger than we think.
The two former World Strongest Man champions co-headline KSW 105 this Saturday in Gliwice, Poland, which streams live on KSWTV.com on pay-per-view. KSW CEO Martin Lewandowski was asked about a possible co-promotional matchup between the winner of Hall vs. Pudzianowski and PFL heavyweight — and former UFC champion — Francis Ngannou.
“I’m in touch with the guys from PFL,” Lewandowski told MMA Fighting. “So definitely we can talk about this kind of match if they would be willing to share the fighter, no problem.
“I can say from now that I’m interested to do that, definitely.”
With it being Hall’s pro MMA debut, the ruleset has been altered for the bout.
The fight takes place under traditional MMA combat rules, but only a two-round bout with four minute rounds. Additionally, instead of the standard one-minute break between rounds, the fighters get 90 seconds in the corner with their teams.
The ruleset was one of the biggest talking points in putting the fight together — which Lewandowski says took a bit longer than most would believe.
“It’s been, I think nearly a year I’ve been trying to match up this fight,” Lewandowski said. “Actually, I asked Mariusz to contact me with Eddie Hall because Mariusz used to be the strongest man — five-time world champion — and Eddie was in 2017. So I asked him, ‘Do you know Eddie?’ ‘Of course, of course.’ ... So he put me in touch with Eddie and I start trying to convince him to make his debut in KSW. And so it’s been nearly a year we’ve been in touch.
“I tried to convince him to fight earlier, but Eddie couldn’t because of his newborn child, etc., some [other] external circumstances. Yeah, he was supposed to actually fight with Mariusz on KSW 100, but I couldn’t make it happen. So finally, 26th of April, this Saturday, this fight will happen. But yes, it’s been a quite a long, bumpy road to negotiate to put those two big guys, in one time, in one round cage in KSW. So that was fun to negotiate with Eddie, really.”
Pudzianowski is set to compete for the 27th time in pro MMA as he looks to snap a two-fight skid. For Hall, his lone MMA bout was a viral 2 vs. 1 fight that took place last year.
According to Lewandowski, Hall’s contract is for more than one bout for KSW.
“Two fights [on his deal],” Lewandowski revealed. “Well, for now, and then, of course, we are talking about longer future, but he has a busy schedule for this year, so I don’t want to plan [for] what happens in 2028.
“So we’ll see how the first fight goes because it depends on a lot of things, depends on this fight on Saturday, and then we will see. But as far as I [see from] him, and he was also training with Tom Aspinall, he’s been treating this fight very seriously.”
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Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
