UFC 326 Needed To Be Great…but It Wasn’t

There was a lot of stock being placed into UFC 326. Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, two of the most popular athletes in the sport today, were to have a highly anticipated BMF clash. Raul Rosas Jr. receiving the toughest test he’s had in the Octagon so far in Rob Font. Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues looking to avenge one of his losses. Four fights to be held on CBS – the first time the UFC is on the channel.

And here we are, over 12 hours after the card has ended, and a lot of people are in agreement – UFC 326 was a massive disappointment.

Obviously, most of the frustration from fans is pointed toward the main event. What many expected to be a five-round war ended up being a one-sided domination from Oliveira, who swept all five rounds on the scorecards to claim the BMF belt.

The BMF wars we’ve seen in the past have been that of the stand-and-bang variety, where striking ruled the Octagon. Look at the names who have fought for the belt before last night: Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Holloway. Two BMF title fights ended in a spectacular knockout; three of them ended in a finish.

Now, I’m not going to say that Oliveira should have stood and traded with Holloway for 25 minutes. That would have been a ticket for Holloway to put him into the Shadow Realm. Grappling is Oliveira’s strong suit, and he used that strong suit for the win. There wasn’t a finish, but it’s tough to finish Holloway. Only two people have done that – Poirier (when a young Holloway made his UFC debut in 2012) and Ilia Topuria.

But, when there’s the BMF belt on the line, the MMA community has an expectation. If this was an interim lightweight title fight, everyone would be talking about the dominance of Oliveira and how this seemed to be the Oliveira of the late 2010s through the end of his title run in 2022. But because of the expectation, the main event fell flat.

The thing is, it’s not just about Oliveira’s dominating win.

While it ended up not mattering much given the nature of the main event, the stream crashing for a few minutes during the third round was not ideal. And if a finish had happened, the pitchforks and torches would have been coming out en masse on social media.

Rosas Jr. got the biggest win of his career over the tough, gritty Rob Font. But the performance wasn’t great. Like Oliveira, Rosas Jr. used his grappling, but it feels like he only focused on positioning and didn’t do anything strong with it. The UFC is strapping a rocket to him, and they’re going to be selective about who he faces – because this performance wasn’t it.

The White House card – UFC Freedom 250 – should be a fun, star-filled night, but some felt the reveal was lackluster.

The four fights on CBS…I still don’t understand why they went with two prelims and two main card bouts when they could have showed the entire prelims or the entire main card. It felt awkward.

The CBS audience did see the two highlights of the night in Rodrigues knocking out Brunno Ferreira and Drew Dober knocking out Michael Johnson. It’s just a shame the Dober-Johnson fight brought us yet another betting line controversy.

And the two prelims the CBS audience saw? Both unimpressive. The highly-touted Donte Johnson lost a lot of his prospect aura. Cody Garbrandt vs. Xiao Long’s highlights saw Garbrandt getting hit with repeated low blows and puking in a bucket. Long looked like a fool for trying to do the “Holloway point,” while losing two points and costing himself the decision in the process.

UFC 326’s criticisms wasn’t just about how Holloway vs. Oliveira played out. A lot of things on the card were either letdowns or just plain unmemorable and/or bad.

And for a card where the UFC had a BMF fight, top prospects featured, the White House card reveal, and the first UFC fights on CBS, the fans deserved a lot better than what they got.