Holloway, Oliveira have more at stake at UFC 326 than only the BMF Title

From a purely “this must be a enjoyable one” perspective, it doesn’t get a lot better than the UFC 326 most important occasion matchup for battle followers.

You’d be onerous pressed to search out two more beloved, revered and flat out entertaining fighters on the total UFC roster than former champions Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira.

The pair have mixed for 47 UFC wins, 34 efficiency awards, a number of world titles and so they’ve delivered iconic moments for blended martial arts followers towards world-class competitors persistently for properly over a decade.

Holloway and Oliveira beforehand fought method again in 2015 at a Combat Evening occasion in Saskatoon after they had been 23 and 25, respectively, and rising featherweight skills, nonetheless that bout ended early and unceremoniously when Oliveira sustained a fluke esophagus harm inside a pair minutes of the contest starting.

As a substitute of a rematch being booked, they went their separate methods. Holloway continued ascending the 145-pound rankings as Oliveira missed weight in two of his subsequent three appearances and misplaced twice in a row by submission earlier than deciding to make the transfer as much as the 155-pound weight class.

Oliveira went 1-1 in 2017 with a win over Will Brooks and a loss to Paul Felder earlier than beginning his career-defining run from 2018 to 2022 when he railed off 11 consecutive wins en path to turning into light-weight champion. 

Oliveira’s signature victories had been stoppages of Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier then Justin Gaethje one after the different till his title run ended and Islam Makhachev’s started roughly 3.5 years in the past and he has alternated wins and losses ever since.

On the different hand, Holloway’s victory over Oliveira prolonged his profitable streak to seven at the time. He ended up additionally profitable his subsequent six fights, together with getting KO/TKO wins in title fights towards Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo (twice) and Brian Ortega.

Holloway’s time as the sport’s prime featherweight ended simply as his rivalry with Alexander Volkanovski started. From 2019 to 2023 Holloway went 5-3 at 145 kilos with all three losses being five-round selections to Volkanovski.

Being caught in featherweight no man’s land, so to talk, resulted in Holloway testing the waters at light-weight and his efficiency towards Gaethje at UFC 300 in April of 2024 was arguably the finest efficiency of Holloway’s profession. It concluded with him profitable the BMF Title because of one in all the most dramatic finishes to a UFC battle ever.

Holloway tried to win again the featherweight belt, which Ilia Topuria gained off Volkanovski early in 2024, however he was knocked out for the first time in his profession by Topuria at UFC 308 and determined to return completely to light-weight.

Oliveira has additionally encountered the feared Topuria and got here out on the shedding finish. Topuria vacated the featherweight title after beating Holloway and knocked out Oliveira in half a spherical to win the vacant light-weight title at UFC 317 final summer time.

The 36-year-old Brazilian rebounded with a submission win over Mateusz Gamrot in October, seemingly totally recovered from his brutal KO to Topuria and as harmful as ever when in grappling situations.

The final time we noticed Holloway, the 34-year-old Hawaiian was concurrently defending the BMF Title and avenging two prior losses to Poirier at UFC 318 final July.

The BMF Title — which is supposed to represent who’s the “Baddest Mom(expletive)” in the UFC — will likely be at stake at T-Cell Area this weekend however it’s the UFC’s light-weight title image that has notably piqued Holloway’s curiosity. 

“I’ve all the time stated I’m going to be in the UFC so long as I’m in title competition or have a title,” Holloway informed Sportsnet’s Diana Belbita this week in Las Vegas. “As soon as I get to (the level) the place I’m preventing fights simply to battle fights, I don’t wish to do it. My title is all the time in title competition proper now and that’s what retains me going.”

Each males are acquainted with rematches. Oliveira is an ideal 4-0 in UFC rematches with two wins over Nik Lentz of their trilogy, plus wins over Jim Miller and Michael Chandler in these sequels. Holloway is simply 2-3 in rematches with two loses Volkanovski, a win over Jose Aldo and a cut up with Poirier of their trilogy.

Not only will Saturday’s winner emerge in possession of the BMF belt, they might probably place themselves as subsequent in line for the light-weight title.

Gaethje just lately gained an interim title at UFC 324 after Topuria introduced late final yr he was taking a private go away of absence earlier than doubtless returning to motion in the center of 2026. In concept, the subsequent light-weight championship bout will likely be a title unifier between Topuria and Gaethje.

“I’m not rooting for nobody — could the finest man win — but when I had my selection I wish to rematch Ilia,” Holloway defined. “He’s the first man to do what he did to me. Nobody else might, so I gotta get that one again. Me and Gaethje have historical past and I do know Gaethje needs to get that one again, so that may be a enjoyable battle additionally, however could the finest man win and we’ll see.

“I need an undisputed title. Lots of people are calling me out for this BMF Title. … At the finish of the day, I need a undisputed title. I wish to be a No. 1 contender on this division. … If I can go on the market and have a 300 second towards Charles Oliveira come Saturday evening, the ball will likely be in our court docket.”

UFC data: Holloway is an outstanding high-volume striker, touchdown 7.20 important strikes per minute and boasting a few of the finest takedown defence in the sport. He holds the UFC file for many whole strikes and has landed more than 1,100 more strikes than the subsequent closest fighter on that listing.

Oliveira is the UFC’s all-time submission wins chief with 17. He additionally has 4 KO/TKO wins and his 21 whole stoppage wins are additionally a file. Oliveira is tied for second place all time with 24 UFC wins. Holloway is 23-8 in the UFC and might transfer right into a tie with Oliveira and Neil Magny for second place on the wins listing if he comes by way of as a favorite.

Holloway has collected 8:27:43 of whole battle time throughout his UFC profession and he has an opportunity to leapfrog former light-weight champion Rafael dos Anjos who holds the file with 8:43:19 of whole battle time in UFC historical past. If the UFC 326 most important occasion makes it to the halfway level of Spherical 4 then Holloway will add one other UFC file to his prolonged listing of accomplishments.

Betting odds: Holloway opened as a -150 favorite however he has grown to more than a two-to-one favorite by the begin of battle week.

Oliveira is 3-3 since shedding the title. He was the betting favorite in wins over Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler and Mateusz Gamrot and misplaced to Islam Makhachev, Arman Tsarukyan and Ilia Topuria when he was the listed underdog.

Holloway is 4-1 in his previous 5 appearances. He was the favorite in three of them and gained all three however cut up the two bouts forward of which he was the underdog. He beat Gaethje as an underdog however couldn’t do the identical when he confronted Topuria six months later. He was the favorite when he despatched Poirier into retirement roughly eight months in the past.

Projected UFC 326 bout order (topic to alter):

— Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira

— Caio Borralho vs. Reinier de Ridder

— Rob Font vs. Raul Rosas Jr.

— Drew Dober vs. Michael Johnson

— Gregory Rodrigues vs. Brunno Ferreira

— Cody Garbrandt vs. Xiao Lengthy

— Donte Johnson vs. Cody Brundage

— Ricky Turcios vs. Alberto Montes

— Cody Durden vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel

— Sumudaerji vs. Jesus Santos Aguilar

— Rafael Tobias vs. Diyar Nurgozhay

— Jeong-yeong Lee vs. Gaston Bolanos

— Luke Fernandez vs. Rodolfo Bellato