UFC 325 is in the books, and Alexander Volkanovski remains the featherweight champion after dominating Diego Lopes in one of the most pointless title fights in modern UFC history. So, what to make of UFC 325? And what about the next big event on the horizon?
Three parter for you Jed, as they all tie to the main event.
1: With how much easier Volk made it look in the rematch, does this further hammer home the narrative of the fans that Volk VS Lopes 2 was a pointless rematch?
2: So long as Volk is the champion, is it safe to say that Lopes will never become UFC FW champion?
3: Volk VS Murphy, or Volk VS Evloev. Who should gotten the shot over Lopes/who should be next for Volk?
1. Yes. Aside from the complete rejection of meritocracy, that was always the issue with this fight — there were very few good outcomes. If Diego Lopes had beaten Volk, then even though the match was stupid, there was a payoff. And if Volk had finished Lopes this time around, you could at least feel better about it. But neither of those was ever likely. Lopes is very difficult to finish (and Volk is not a big finisher anyway), and Lopes is not some young prospect who was going to look completely different in a rematch. The man has been fighting for nearly 15 years; the cake is baked. The overwhelming likelihood for this fight was always that it would just be a repeat of the first fight, which made it a huge waste of everyone’s time.
2. Well, yes, but that’s more because I doubt even the UFC would give Lopes a third shot at Volkanovski. If they do (please, God, no) then Lopes has a chance to win, because Volk is old and he’s dangerous, but it’s not much more than a puncher’s chance. Lopes is a limited fighter, and Volk is an all-time great. If they fought 100 times, Volk probably wins 95 of them.
Fortunately for Lopes, Volk won’t be around for long. Volk is old, so he’s likely to lose the belt soon anyway, but if he does successfully defend it once more, I can’t imagine he sticks around 145 after that. Volkanovski wants one more shot at 155, so I expect him to be gone from this weight class by December, meaning Lopes is still in the mix.
3. Movsar Evloev. The answer has been Movsar Evloev since the day Ilia Topuria vacated the belt. He beat Diego Lopes. He has never been beaten in a fight. He is the only legitimate contender for the title if you believe in meritocracy, and the only people who don’t want him to fight feel that way because they find him boring. Fair enough, I suppose, but this isn’t the Ultimate Fun Championship. Movsar Evloev may be the best featherweight on Earth, and he should have had his day in court already. My great fear is that he beats Lerone Murphy in a few weeks and the UFC still decides to give Jean Silva a title shot instead, which would be outrageous.
I found the Ruffy/Rafael Fiziev fight to be the most captivating from a sports-psychology perspective. Reeling from Benoit Saint Denis dominating him on home turf to KO’ing Fiziev after having been gun shy earlier in the fight.
So what have we learned about Ruffy, and at 29 years old, what do you project his 2026 to look like?
I hesitate to say that was a full-blown redemption for Ruffy, but I don’t think there was anyone on Saturday who gained more than the Fighting Nerds product.
Coming off Contender Series, I wasn’t sold on Ruffy, but he lit dudes up in his first few fights, and because he is/was with the Nerds, he got some steam behind him. But the BSD loss was so bad for him. He looked completely lost against a guy who, not long before, had also seen his star fall abruptly. But despite that loss, Ruffy got a huge opportunity to face another Top-10-ranked opponent. A loss to Fiziev would have really hurt his stock; instead, he’s right back where he was before BSD.
Well, almost right back. The fact remains that while the win was great and helped him regain momentum, we didn’t learn much from it. We knew that Ruffy was a creative and dangerous striker, with long reach and wicked power. What BSD taught us is that he’s not great on the ground, and we learned nothing new in that regard. If Ruffy gets Mateusz Gamrot next, that might be another bad loss incoming. It all depends on how that part of his game is developing.
But I don’t think the UFC is going to do that to him. The promotion seems to be behind Ruffy, and even though I think he’s the worst of the Fighting Nerds, that kind of doesn’t matter if the UFC backs you. Best guess is he gets a favorable matchup against a ranked opponent next, and then to close out the year, he’ll get someone near the top of the division as they try to groom him for a real title run.
Tuivasa to BKFC? I certainly hope not
After six consecutive losses, it’s hard for me to imagine the UFC is going to give Tai too many more opportunities, especially off a fight like that one against Tallison Teixeira. So, yeah, I think he’s probably soon to be plying his trade outside of the octagon, and BKFC makes sense.
The only caveat to that is I’m not sure BKFC wants to pay to fly Tuivasa around the world for fights. Maybe Dirty Boxing is a more likely landing spot. Or, honestly, Fight Circus. That feels like a perfect marriage.
How do you feel about Holloway vs Oliveira 2 as the main event for 326? Their first fight was a non-event (Chuck was such a weirdo back then and now that he’s a certified banger, I’m pumped on this fight) but headlining an otherwise weak numbered event card? Hmmm.
Brother, I’m not sure I understand the skepticism. The point of a headliner is that it’s a fight people want to see. It can carry the load and draw interest from fans to make them tune in and buy a pay-per-view (non-U.S. countries still have this). You said you’re pumped for the fight, so what is the problem?
Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira are both stars, both former champions, and both beloved figures in the sport. Both are destined for the Hall of Fame. And for as much as people bag on the “BMF” title, I think it’s actually a good thing. Belts don’t make fighters; fighters make belts, and Holloway gives that title some juice. This fight might be *slightly* past its best-buy date, but it is still a banger, and is, frankly, a MUCH better main event than the previous two PPVs were.
What’s the front-runner for the 326 co-main? Cause let’s be honest, that card needs some help badly. The BMF’s are just Ilia Topuria’s leftovers. Caio Borralho and Reinier de Ridder are coming off losses with RDR’s being one of the worst of the year. There’s a dude on the main card who doesn’t even have a f’n Wikipedia page…
There are 7 ranked fighters on this card and the only guy with 2 wins is guy without the Wiki page.
Do you think they actually try to put a great fight in that spot or just phone another one in?
In case you missed it, the UFC dropped the main card for UFC 326 during the UFC 325 broadcast, with one notable exception: the co-main event was left TBD. And with the event just five weeks away, that’s weird!
But before I talk about what’s going to be the co-main event, I want to address the full question. I don’t say this lightly, and I say it with as much love as I can muster, but if you think like this, maybe you should stop being an MMA fan. Not in a Dana White-esque “If you don’t like it, then leave” spiteful kind of way, but because I simply cannot imagine you are having fun watching this sport anymore. If you look at the announced fights for 325 and think “these suck,” then you’re only going to like maybe five fights a year, total. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if that’s the case, don’t wallow in anger; find something else that brings you joy. Because if you look at Holloway vs. Oliveira as nothing more than “Ilia’s leftovers,” then sir, the joy doesn’t seem to be in you anymore.
As mentioned above, not every event needs to have a title fight on it. Holloway vs. Oliveira 2 is an awesome fight. It doesn’t need a robust undercard to make me care about that event, in general, and realistically, the rest of the main card actually does have interesting fights. You just dismissed Borralho vs. RDR off-hand, but that’s Top-10 middleweights who are both, historically, fun to watch, and are facing off in a functional win-or-go-home fight. That’s excitement and stakes in one matchup. You can’t really ask for much more than that, unless you are exclusively interested in title fights.
I’m not here to tell you Robocop vs. Brunno Ferreira is peak MMA, but if you’re just tuning in to enjoy some fights, there’s almost no chance you don’t enjoy what those two dudes do to each other. And Rob Font vs. Raul Rosas Jr. is classic prospect vs. aging veteran matchmaking. That is a perfectly solid main card.
I don’t carry the UFC’s water, and there is a broader conversation about the promotion mailing it in, but that feels more appropriate for the undercards of events, and even for the previous two PPVs this year. UFC 324 and UFC 325 were much worse efforts from the promotion because they threw merit out the window and replaced it with some nonsense title fights. This is not doing that at all. These are exciting, interesting, high-level bouts of consequence. Is 326 on par with 300? Of course not. But if that’s your standard, you will enjoy one PPV event every five years. And if that’s the case, take up another hobby. Life is short. Choose happiness.
As for what will be the co-main event for UFC 326, my best guess is they bump Borralho vs. RDR up to that spot. I thought that’s what was going to happen anyway until the graphic dropped. The only other option is that they move the planned fight between Renato Moicano and TBD into that space. Moicano vs. Brian Ortega wouldn’t have been the best co-main, but with a main like that, it’s fine. So, whoever they get to step in to replace Ortega may decide if that’s the co-main. If it’s a big name — Michael Chandler or something — then that’s the co-main. If it’s not, Borralho and RDR move up.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions. Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send them to me. Every Sunday (sometimes I forget and it happens on Monday), I’ll put out a call for questions on The Feed. Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane; just drop your questions in there and let’s have fun.
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