Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira II BMF title fight headlines UFC 326

Former UFC Lightweight Champion and current No. No. 2-ranked Charles Oliveira (36-11) already has his next fight lined up, just under two months away from his last outing, where he is expected to face No. 2. 3 ranked former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (27-8) for the BMF title in the main event of UFC 326.

UFC 326 will take place live from T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada on March 7, 2026.

This fight is a rematch of their 2015 meeting at 145 pounds, with Holloway emerging victorious via TKO (injury) with Oliveira rupturing his esophagus just 99 seconds into the bout.

That came in the middle of Holloway’s legendary 14-fight featherweight winning streak, in which he defeated the likes of Jeremy Stephens (UD) and Ricardo Lamas (UD) before stopping former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis (TKO) for the interim title.

Holloway then unified the titles against Jose Aldo (TKO) before defending them against Aldo in their rematch (TKO), Brian Ortega (TKO) and former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar (UD).

Holloway has since moved up to 155 lbs, where he captured the BMF title against Justin Gaethje (KO) before defending it against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy (UD), someone he was 0-2 against going into it.

After racking up the most submission wins in UFC featherweight history, Oliveira himself moved back up to 155 lbs, snapping an 11-fight win streak from 2018 to 2022, where he defeated, among others Clay Guida (guillotine choke), Christos Giagos (rear naked choke), Jim Miller (rear naked choke) in their rematch, David Teymur (anaconda choke), Nik Lentz (TKO) in their trilogy, Jared Gordon (KO), Kevin Lee (guillotine choke) and former interim champion Tony Ferguson (UD).

This led to his vacant title shot against former Bellator Lightweight Champion Michael Chandler, whom he stopped in the second round (TKO) to become the UFC Lightweight Champion. Oliveira followed this up with defenses against former interim champions Dustin Poirier (rear naked choke) and Justin Gaethje (rear naked choke) before losing the title to Islam Makhachev (arm-triangle choke) in 2022.

Since then, Oliveira has gone 3-2 with wins over Beneil Dariush (TKO), Michael Chandler in their rematch (UD) and Mateusz Gamrot (neck crank), with the losses coming to nil. 1 ranked Arman Tsarukyan in a nail-biting decision that he could have easily taken credit for, and then Ilia Topuria (KO) in another vacant title fight in June.

Gamrot’s victory was exceptionally impressive.

The performance not only extended Oliveira’s records for most finishes and submission wins in UFC history, but also saw him become the first man to ever stop the 25-3 former KSW champion in two divisions. Additionally, two of Gamrot’s defeats were split decisions, with almost everyone scoring for him; he easily could have been 27-1 going into that fight and Oliveira made it look easy.

This is the fight many of us were hoping would be next for these two: Who will leave UFC 326 with the BMF Championship?

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