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Former BMF champion Jorge Masdival recently announced his retirement and the UFC has decided to bring the title back into the game. The 'BMF' belt, which stands for Baddest Motherf***er, is not an official UFC world title and the symbolic belt has only been on the line in one fight, however, the fighting promotion's president Dana White has recently announced Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje will headline the UFC 291 in a five-round bout.
Poirier and Gaethje first met in April 2018 with 'The Diamond' stopping his lightweight rival after a back-and-forth four rounds. Since their first meeting, both have witnessed successful careers and have lost title shots against Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira. Poirer is currently fresh off a third-round submission win over Michael Chandler at the UFC 281 in November and Gathje is also coming off a win over Rafael Fiziev in March.
Watch Dana White's big announcement:
After the announcement of the Gaethje rematch, Poirier told FanSided MMA, " It’s a fight that makes me nervous. When I hear a name and I get nervous it’s motivation - same thing with Chandler. When I heard Chandler’s name when they called me with Michael Chandler, I was nervous because I knew the dangers of those kinds of fights and that’s what motivates me. Same thing with Justin. If they do call me and he’s the name that they say, maybe it happens. We’ll see. "
UFC 291 will take place on July 29 at the Vivint Arena in Utah and will also feature a co-headliner between former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira.
UFC 291: Fight Card
- Dustin Poirier vs Justin Gaethje - Lightweight bout Vacant BMF Title
- Jan Blachowicz vs Alex Pereira - Light heavyweight bout
- Paulo Costa vs Ikram Aliskerov - Middleweight bout
- Tony Ferguson vs Bobby Green - Lightweight bout
- Michael Chiesa vs Kevin Holland - Welterweight bout