LAS VEGAS — 36-year-old Charles Oliveira turned back the clock and shocked the world at UFC 326 on Saturday, putting on a dominant performance against heavily favored Max Holloway to win the BMF belt by unanimous decision, 50-45, at T-Mobile Arena.
Oliveira stunned Holloway in the early stages of the first round of their lightweight bout and controlled the fight from that point forward, logging a remarkable 20:49 of control time while succeeding on 5-of-13 takedown attempts. Oliveira’s insistence at keeping the fight on the ground drew some boos from fans who were hoping for a typical BMF-style brawl, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu artist also landed his strikes at a higher percentage and volume than Holloway in addition to his elite ground performance.
The win was a full circle moment for Oliveira, who lost to Holloway in 2015 after suffering a shoulder and esophagus injury on a first-round takedown attempt rendered him unable to compete. Oliveira is now the fourth BMF champion in UFC history, joining Holloway, Justin Gaethje and Jorge Masvidal.
The co-main event saw “Fighting Nerds” founder Caio Borralho defeat Reiner De Ridder in a unanimous 30-27 decision, although the fight was certainly more competitive than the final scorecards indicated. Regardless, Borralho rebounded from his disappointing loss to Nassourdine Imavov in September and now has his sights set on former middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, whom Borralho called out in his post-fight interview.
The second bout of the main card between Drew Dober and Michael Johnson drew some unwanted attention on betting markets in the hours leading up to the fight, after a series of posts on social media led to a drastic line shift that saw Johnson move from a -155 favorite last week to a +150 favorite in the hours leading up to the fight. Johnson, whose last scheduled fight against Alexander Hernandez at UFC 324 was pulled due to betting irregularities, was knocked out with a thundering left hook from Dober at 1:53 in the second round.
Fighting for the first time on the main card of a numbered UFC event, rising 21-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. earned his fifth straight win and third straight unanimous decision with a clinical wrestling performance against 13th-ranked bantamweight Rob Font. Rosas Jr. registered over 10 minutes of control time and landed 16-of-18 takedown attempts, putting together the most dominant performance of his young career to this point.
The main card started off with a bang thanks to Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues, who avenged his first-round knockout loss to Brunno Ferreira at UFC 283 with a first-round knockout of his own on just his second strike attempt, 1:47 into Saturday’s fight. Since that initial loss to Ferreira in 2023, Rodrigues has won six of his last seven fights, including four by KO/TKO.
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
