Is it the greatest numbered card we’ll see of the UFC’s 2026 offerings? No, but UFC 326 is a kind of homage to the veterans of the game who’ve stuck around long enough to be celebrated. Of the 10 fighters on the main card, nine of them are 33 years old or older. Only 21-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. will be asked for ID at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
Of course, that main event is a doozy. Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway squaring off for the BMF title over a decade after their first encounter in Saskatoon? It’s a battle of cherished icons, and the biggest drawback of this kind of fight is that one of them has to lose.
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As we do with all the big cards, we asked the burning questions heading into the weekend — here is the UFC 326 roundtable!
1. Who has had the better career and legacy heading into this BMF clash: Charles Oliveira or Max Holloway?
Petesy: This is a great question, Chuck. I feel like there is no wrong answer to it. The work these guys did in their preferred weight classes is written into the history of the sport, they both fight with incredibly fan-friendly styles and, more often than not, they are the sentimental favorites in every matchup they sign up for.
For me, it’s Holloway, though. The one edge I give him over Charles is that he dethroned the greatest featherweight fighter of his generation, José Aldo. Granted, it was after my fellow Gael stretched him out in 13 seconds, but it still stands! Of course, Charles struck off a lion’s share of era-defining lightweights like Gaethje, Poirier and Ferguson but he could never take out the Cochise at 155 pounds, whether it was Khabib Nurmagomedov or his heir apparent, Islam Makhachev.
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Don’t let it be said that I don’t love “Do Bronx,” though. I absolutely do. I’ll fight any man to the death that says otherwise.
Chuck: It’s wild to me that these guys have a combined 66 UFC fights. It felt like Chael Sonnen fought in the UFC forever, and he had a mere 11 total UFC fights. These guys take off their shoes more than pro swimmers. And really, the fact that we can’t really say either one of them is on a steep decline after so many years in this grim trade is a testament alone to how great each man is.
Did you realize, Petesy, that it was exactly 100 pay-per-views ago that we worried Max Holloway had taken too many shots? It was in the lead-up to UFC 226 that Michael Bisping asked a loopy Holloway if he was aight on a live interview, and I can remember at least a couple of eulogies being written about him. Here we are, over seven years and 100 PPVs later, and he’s one of the most iconic stars in the UFC.
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And if we’re talking perseverance, remember that Charles Oliveira started his UFC career with a 5-4-1 record and he missed weight like a regular Bryan Battle. The fact that he overcame all that speaks volumes, too.
That’s why these guys are in the BMF title fight. What doesn’t kill them, makes them stronger. And if I had to pick, I’d give the nod to Max as well. Nobody authors as many iconic moments as the “Blessed” one.
2. Justin Gaethje is likely next, but does the winner of this BMF main event get pole position for a lightweight title shot beyond that, especially with Arman Tsarukyan out there punching dudes in RAF?
Chuck: The thing is, Petesy, both Charles and Max are extremely popular with fans, and if we can draw any conclusions from Paddy Pimblett fighting Gaethje to kick off the Paramount+ era I’d say it’s a good bet. However, Charles’ case would be harder to make than Max’s. The champion, Ilia Topuria, beat both guys already, but handled Oliveira with relative ease.
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Imagine, though, if Holloway schools Oliveira in a way similar to how he did Gaethje at UFC 300. He has one of those point to the center of the cage moments that reminds everyone just want an iconic madman he is. I could see the UFC easily turning Tsarukyan into a hologram and looking right past him in handing the contract over to Max.
The meritocracy that fought so gallantly for its life through the Fertitta years is on its death bed in 2026.
Petesy: You’re right, man. What Holloway did for pointing at the ground is as revolutionary as what Jimi Hendrix did with the electric guitar. He can pretty much do what he wants if he has another UFC 300 moment. He might even be the answer to the “What Americans could actually win if we put them on the White House card” question too.
It’s just so hard to tell these days. Tsarukyan — the bona fide number one contender — appeared on Uncrowned’s “Ariel Helwani Show” earlier this week and claimed he could be next in line for both the lightweight title and the BMF title. The following day, Helwani revealed he had conversations with a lot of insiders that suggested the organization is more disorganized than ever. Tsarukyan’s smorgasbord of options highlights that even more. Just a few weeks ago, Dana White seemed to be celebrating the fact that he put Tsarukyan behind the eight ball in terms of contention, and now he’s in line for two titles without even fighting. It makes no damn sense, Chuck!
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To your point, I don’t see either of these guys being viable contenders for Topuria given how he dealt with them. However, as we saw with the Lopes rematch against Volkanovski, UFC doesn’t seem to care all that much, so it’s impossible to rule it out.
3. Who would you pair in a women’s BMF title fight if you were asked to matchmake it right now?
Petesy: I guess that depends on what you think a BMF title is, Chuck. If it’s just two fun people who can’t seem to beat the champion (which applies to nearly every BMF title in the history of the category), I think you could put Manon Fiorot against Alexa Grasso and it would be passable.
But if you’re asking me who I think the baddest mfers in female fighting are in this day and age, I’d put Dakota Ditcheva against Valentina Shevchenko. Alternatively, I’d suggest a rematch between Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg.
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Honestly, the more I think about it, wouldn’t a women’s BMF title have been very useful on the back of Ronda Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm? You could give the company’s poster girl a fun runout against a celebrated name to bounce back from her first defeat. You know, maybe someone like Gina Carano.
Someone should make that fight.
Chuck: You might want to sign up for some social media accounts, Petesy. You’ll be surprised what you find. I’ll say this, though: Manon Fiorot knows something about that thug life, I can see it in the way she handles herself. She’d be a fun dark horse for the BMF, though the fight public would yawn until their eyes teared up.
The only problem with booking Dakota and Valentina is that they are both still champions, thus transcending the criteria (or what we assume to be the criteria). I think that would be the fight in the broader sense, though. Two of the baddest going. Shevchenko’s nomadic life traveling to training camps all over the globe, like a highly evasive assassin, makes her inherently bad.
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I’d make the women’s BMF a battle between Cris Cyborg and Kayla Harrison. I know, I know, I just said no champions, but as Walt Whitman once pointed out, “do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large. I contain multitudes.)”
4. Both Caio Borralho and Reinier de Ridder are coming off of losses. Who’s carrying more pressure going into Saturday?
Chuck: I’m going to say that it’s Borralho here. Even if MMA fans haven’t been chirping about him one day fighting for a title, his Fighting Nerds faction really believed its Grand Poobah was made of that extraordinary material. When I was doing a feature on that bespectacled club last year, I remember Jean Silva nearly tearing up talking about Caio.
The thing about Reinier is that he kind of caught all of us off-guard by his early UFC success. If you watched him in ONE maybe you predicted he would translate, but I don’t even think UFC matchmakers understood he was such a handful. They fed him to Bo Nickal hoping he’d act as a kind of catapult to get Nickal into the top 10, and de Ridder made that backfire spectacularly. The follow up victory over Whittaker definitely raised some eyebrows, too, but there has been a “house money” feel to his run so far.
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Petesy: Like my love for “Do Bronx,” I’ll fight any man who claims I don’t love you, Chuck, but I gotta disagree with you on this one. I don’t necessarily disagree with how you’ve framed Borralho’s situation, I just think there is more pressure on Reinier because of how spectacularly he fell in his bout against Brendan Allen.
You remember how everyone turned on Bo Nickal after RDR styled on him? I feel like he got the same treatment when he didn’t answer the bell for the fifth against Allen. He went from being the dark horse of the division to being “fraud checked” as our nameless and faceless friends on X would say.
While there wasn’t the same outrage when Borralho lost to Imavov, I was really unimpressed by him that night in Paris. Sure, he had it all going against him and Imavov is already considered a top contender at middleweight. With all that said, I’m riding with the underdog going into this one. I think RDR matches up very well with the man who drew such an emotional response from the always measured and famously laissez-faire Jean Silva.
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5. Raul Rosas is just 21 years old while Rob Font is 38. How much will the experience gap factor into their fight Saturday?
Petesy: This is one of those pairings that makes you wince just looking at it on paper. Rosas Jr. is a star in the making and he fights incredibly well regardless of what age he is. That’s why it surprised me when they matched him with Rob Font. Font is a guy who can’t quite cut it at the very top of the bracket. He puts a win streak together and then he meets someone in the title conversation and it’s back to square one.
There is one thing he is fantastic at, though. Unfortunately for Rosas Jr., that thing just happens to be beating surging prospects while they’re on the ascent. Remember how hyped everyone was on Adrian Yanez? People were calling him the best boxer in the UFC until he walked onto a Font right hook. Kyler Phillips was another white-hot prospect that had a streak killed by Font. And then there was formerly undefeated Jean Matsumoto. You can’t call him that anymore. You know why? Because he fought Rob Font, that’s why.
It’s not just the experience gap for me, it’s the Font factor. This guy is a different beast when he looks into the dreaming eyes of a fighter than hasn’t fully tasted the depravity of the business yet.
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Chuck: Raul Rosas Jr. was 17 years old when he debuted on “Contender Series.” Rob Font was 17 when Rosas was born. How wild is that? I tend to agree that Font brings a certain menace to the equation here, and had traditionally been a guy who streaks go to die — all of which I guess goes into the experience factor. He’s stood in there with a lot of mean hombres, and he’s beaten more than a few.
Yet the age itself is the problem for me. We’ve seem what too many winters can do to a fighter, and that it’s not a question of if but when. Is this the moment Font truly feels his age? I do think Rosas Jr. is the kind of fighter who will make him find out. Rosas will push the action in there, and that youthful exuberance — if he can harness it right as he did with Vince Morales in what I thought was a good step forward — I can see him wearing Font down.
You know what would be a statement from Rosas Jr.? Finishing Font. In 20 UFC fights, he has been finished just once — nine years ago against Pedro Munhoz.
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Bonus: Which other fight on UFC 326 is grabbing your attention?
Chuck: I’ll go ahead and say it: This preliminary card is pretty anemic. It can’t be good when so many Codys are stuffed into one place, and here we have three: Garbrandt, Durden and Brundage.
Strictly speaking from an intrigue standpoint, I’ll go with Nyamjargal Tumendemberel, the Mongolian flyweight, who has the presence of a true warrior. He is really early in his career, just 20 pro fights, and didn’t look spectacular in his debut against Carlos Hernandez, but he when he ended up back on the Road to UFC he looked fantastic against (someone named) Terrance Saeteurn.
If you like fighters from that part of the world — beautiful figures like Mykttybek Orolbai — you’ll love the “Art of Knockout.”
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Petesy: You’re right, the supporting acts are largely forgettable, but truly stacked cards feel like they’re now from a forgotten age. I don’t want to drag us into old men shouting at the clouds discourse (again), so instead, let’s focus on the positives.
My favorite kind of fights are ones where you don’t know who is going to win, but you know someone is going to get splattered. With that in mind, I would like to submit Drew Dober vs. Michael Johnson to the conversation.
This fight really has no stakes attached to it other than both guys have excellent hands and a lot of signature highlight-reel knockouts. It’s a perfect SGS (someone’s getting splattered) matchup and I personally cannot wait.
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