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

From a purely “this should be a fun one” perspective, it doesn’t get much better than the UFC 326 main event matchup for fight fans.

You’d be hard pressed to find two more beloved, respected and flat out entertaining fighters on the entire UFC roster than former champions Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira.

The pair have combined for 47 UFC wins, 34 performance awards, multiple world titles and they’ve delivered iconic moments for mixed martial arts fans against world-class competition consistently for well over a decade.

Holloway and Oliveira previously fought way back in 2015 at a Fight Night event in Saskatoon when they were 23 and 25, respectively, and rising featherweight talents, however that bout ended early and unceremoniously when Oliveira sustained a fluke esophagus injury within a couple minutes of the contest beginning.

Instead of a rematch being booked, they went their separate ways. Holloway continued ascending the 145-pound rankings as Oliveira missed weight in two of his next three appearances and lost twice in a row by submission before deciding to make the move up to the 155-pound weight class.

Oliveira went 1-1 in 2017 with a win over Will Brooks and a loss to Paul Felder before starting his career-defining run from 2018 to 2022 when he railed off 11 consecutive wins en route to becoming lightweight champion. 

Oliveira’s signature victories were stoppages of Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier then Justin Gaethje one after the other until his title run ended and Islam Makhachev’s began roughly 3.5 years ago and he has alternated wins and losses ever since.

On the other hand, Holloway’s victory over Oliveira extended his winning streak to seven at the time. He ended up also winning his next six fights, including getting KO/TKO wins in title fights against Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo (twice) and Brian Ortega.

Holloway’s time as the sport’s top featherweight ended just as his rivalry with Alexander Volkanovski began. From 2019 to 2023 Holloway went 5-3 at 145 pounds with all three losses being five-round decisions to Volkanovski.

Being stuck in featherweight no man’s land, so to speak, resulted in Holloway testing the waters at lightweight and his performance against Gaethje at UFC 300 in April of 2024 was arguably the best performance of Holloway’s career. It concluded with him winning the BMF Title thanks to one of the most dramatic finishes to a UFC fight ever.

Holloway attempted to win back the featherweight belt, which Ilia Topuria won off Volkanovski early in 2024, but he was knocked out for the first time in his career by Topuria at UFC 308 and decided to return permanently to lightweight.

Oliveira has also encountered the feared Topuria and came out on the losing end. Topuria vacated the featherweight title after beating Holloway and knocked out Oliveira in half a round to win the vacant lightweight title at UFC 317 last summer.

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

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

The BMF Title — which is meant to symbolize who is the “Baddest Mother(expletive)” in the UFC — will be at stake at T-Mobile Arena this weekend but it’s the UFC’s lightweight title picture that has particularly piqued Holloway’s interest. 

“I’ve always said I’m going to be in the UFC as long as I’m in title contention or have a title,” Holloway told Sportsnet’s Diana Belbita this week in Las Vegas. “Once I get to (the point) where I’m fighting fights just to fight fights, I don’t want to do it. My name is always in title contention right now and that’s what keeps me going.”

Both men are familiar with rematches. Oliveira is a perfect 4-0 in UFC rematches with two wins over Nik Lentz in their trilogy, plus wins over Jim Miller and Michael Chandler in those sequels. Holloway is just 2-3 in rematches with two loses Volkanovski, a win over Jose Aldo and a split with Poirier in their trilogy.

Not only will Saturday’s winner emerge in possession of the BMF belt, they could potentially position themselves as next in line for the lightweight title.

Gaethje recently won an interim title at UFC 324 after Topuria announced late last year he was taking a personal leave of absence before likely returning to action in the middle of 2026. In theory, the next lightweight championship bout will be a title unifier between Topuria and Gaethje.

“I’m not rooting for no one — may the best man win — but if I had my choice I want to rematch Ilia,” Holloway explained. “He’s the first man to do what he did to me. No one else could, so I gotta get that one back. Me and Gaethje have history and I know Gaethje wants to get that one back, so that would be a fun fight also, but may the best man win and we’ll see.

“I want an undisputed title. A lot of people are calling me out for this BMF Title. … At the end of the day, I want a undisputed title. I want to be a No. 1 contender in this division. … If I can go out there and have a 300 moment against Charles Oliveira come Saturday night, the ball will be in our court.”

UFC records: Holloway is a phenomenal high-volume striker, landing 7.20 significant strikes per minute and boasting some of the best takedown defence in the sport. He holds the UFC record for most total strikes and has landed more than 1,100 more strikes than the next closest fighter on that list.

Oliveira is the UFC’s all-time submission wins leader with 17. He also has four KO/TKO wins and his 21 total stoppage wins are also a record. Oliveira is tied for second place all time with 24 UFC wins. Holloway is 23-8 in the UFC and can move into a tie with Oliveira and Neil Magny for second place on the wins list if he comes through as a favourite.

Holloway has accumulated 8:27:43 of total fight time during his UFC career and he has a chance to leapfrog former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos who holds the record with 8:43:19 of total fight time in UFC history. If the UFC 326 main event makes it to the midway point of Round 4 then Holloway will add another UFC record to his lengthy list of accomplishments.

Betting odds: Holloway opened as a -150 favourite but he has grown to more than a two-to-one favourite by the start of fight week.

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

Holloway is 4-1 in his past five appearances. He was the favourite in three of them and won all three but split the two bouts ahead of which he was the underdog. He beat Gaethje as an underdog but couldn’t do the same when he faced Topuria six months later. He was the favourite when he sent Poirier into retirement roughly eight months ago.

Projected UFC 326 bout order (subject to change):

MAIN CARD

— 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

PRELIMINARY CARD

— Cody Garbrandt vs. Xiao Long

— 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

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