NEW ORLEANS – Paulo Costa has seen better days, but Roman Kopylov still considers him to be at elite level.

During his media day interviews on UFC 318 fight week, Dustin Poirier confirmed that the dream scenario that he pitched for his final walk out is set to happen on Saturday night. Anyone who has been watching ‘The Diamond’ for some time knows that his walk out song of choice is the iconic James Brown track, ‘The Boss’.

New Orleans rapper Alfred Banks celebrates his birthday on Saturday, July 19, with a show at Gasa Gasa. He’ll be joined by La Reezy, who recently has been catching some national attention, and gifted lyricist Kaye the Beast. Music starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $19.29 via gasagasanola.com.

The fatal mistake wasn't nerves or jitters, no. It was quite the opposite. Freire (36-8 MMA, 0-1 UFC) said his UFC 314 loss to Yair Rodriguez was the result of being too calm.

One UFC 318 fighter arrived in the promotion last year with one of the more memorable Octagon debuts in recent memory.