LAS VEGAS — More than a decade after they headlined a UFC Fight Night card in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira will once again square off in a UFC main event. This time around, it will be for the symbolic BMF belt at UFC 326 at T-Mobile Arena.
The first meeting between the pair in August 2015 ended just 1:39 into the bout, when Oliveira injured his neck and esophagus on a takedown attempt and was unable to continue.
That fight marked the first time either Holloway or Oliveira fought in the main event of a UFC card, and as anti-climactic as it was, the result continued Holloway’s rise to eventually being crowned interim featherweight champion in 2016 and unified champion in 2017.
For Oliveria, that night was a legitimate setback in a career that would later blossom into one of the most notable in UFC history. He went on to lose three of his next five fights, a stretch punctuated by a TKO loss to Paul Felder at UFC 218 in December 2017.
Following that loss, however, Oliveira ripped off a career-defining 11-fight win streak from 2018 to 2022 that saw him win the UFC Lightweight Championship against Michael Chandler in 2021.
After all that Oliveira (36-11) has seen throughout the last decade-plus, the misfortune of that first fight is seemingly something he’s put behind him.
“Let’s forget about the other fight,” Oliveira said. “The first one didn’t exist, forget it, let’s kill it. He won, that’s it. It’s over. Two great fighters, two legends, two great champions who will have the opportunity to put on a great show on Saturday”
After successfully defending against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269, Oliveira was stripped of the belt for missing weight ahead of his second defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274.
Although Oliveira got another title shot against Islam Makhachev later that year, he was beaten decisively en route to being submitted via triangle choke in the second round. Counting that loss, Oliveira has gone 3-3 in his past six fights, including a first-round TKO loss to Ilia Topuria for the lightweight belt last June.
Holloway (27-8) has also had his fair share of turbulence in recent years, losing a trio of classic fights to Alexander Volkanovski in addition to falling victim to a knockout blow by Topuria.
Still, Holloway’s all-time knockout of Gaethje at UFC 300 and his lights-out performance against Poirier in Poirier’s retirement fight at UFC 318 proved he is still among the premier entertainers in all of the sport.
“I think that moment (with Gaethje) transcended the sport, and it was amazing,” Holloway said. “I saw someone with my shirt on and I was like, ‘Oh, sick shirt’ and they’re losing their mind with me but then they were telling me, ‘I’m not even an MMA fan. I saw this clip and then I saw your shirt at Pacsun and that’s why I bought it.’ That’s how cool that moment was.”
Making up the rest of the main card are Caio Borralho vs. Reinier de Ridder (middleweight); Rob Font vs. Raul Rosas Jr. (bantamweight); Drew Dober vs. Michael Johnson (lightweight); and Gregory Rodrigues vs. Brunno Ferreira (middleweight).
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
