Zellhuber wound up getting his wish as the pair are matched up in Saturday's UFC 318 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) main card opener at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

With the MMA world leader back on pay-per-view this weekend, now is a perfect time for some bold UFC 318 predictions. The ESPN+ card will go down inside the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA, and be headlined by a BMF title fight when current champ Max Holloway defends the belt for the first time in a clash with Dustin Poirier.

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’.

"The Italian Dream" takes on bitter rival Brendan Allen on the preliminary card of Saturday's UFC pay-per-view event at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. Vettori (19-7-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) and Allen (24-7 MMA, 12-4 UFC) have plenty of history, more infamously getting into a brawl on the casino floor of the Hard Rock Hotel in South Florida.

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.

New Orleans will host the first event in the US outside of its regular Las Vegas residence as Power Slap 14: The Bell vs Mena will take place at the Xavier University Convocation Center this Friday.

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