UFC 318 will feature a whole bunch of Louisiana royalty, including legendary rapper Lil Wayne.
Dustin Poirier has been teasing a Lil Wayne walkout for his retirement fight against Max Holloway at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Saturday night, but nothing had been confirmed — until now.
During UFC 318 media day, Poirier was asked if a Lil Wayne walkout was locked in and “The Diamond” confirmed.
“It’ll be a little bit of James Brown, a little bit of Wayne,” Poirier said when asked what it would look like. “Yeah, Wayne’s walking out with me.”
Don’t expect Wayne to rap Poirier down to the cage, though. That’s never happened in the UFC, and the promotion has done live music entrances just once: for Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes at UFC 189, where Sinead O’Connor and Aaron Lewis performed on a special stage as the fighters made the walk.
Could they make an exception for Wayne? Normally we’d say probably not, but normally the UFC doesn’t put the effort to hold an entire event in a fighter’s hometown for his retirement match. So this whole damn event is already something unusual. A little extra effort from the company when it comes to Wayne performing is slightly possible for this ‘last dance.’
Lil Wayne was the music Dustin Poirier walked out to in his first UFC fight, but everyone knows the real backbone of a “Diamond” walkout is James Brown’s ‘The Boss.’ And it sounds like that will be the case at UFC 318.
“I have to,” he said of keeping his signature walkout track despite having Wayne with him. “I paid the cost to be the boss! On my last one I can’t switch it up that [much], I can’t go that far from that. I have to hear that, I need to feel that vibe before I fight someone.”
Poirier fights Holloway for the third time in a series that has thus far gone 2-0 for Dustin. As excited as we are for his last walk, we’re more hyped for the fight between these two warriors. Keep it locked to MMAMania.com for all the updates as fight week continues on towards this guaranteed slobberknocker of a UFC fight card.
