UFC 324: Why 2026 has the makings of being UFC's best year in a decade with potential for massive fights

Is 2026 the new 2016? If the latest viral social media trends are any indication, that would appear to be the case. 

And for fans of the UFC, as the promotion enters its new seven-year media rights deal with Paramount (the parent company of CBS Sports), there likely wouldn't be any complaints if year one of the $7.7 billion dollar agreement started to look and feel a lot like the promotion did 10 years ago. 

It's not as if the UFC has struggled since 2016, however. Not only has the promotion enjoyed year-over-year record financial gain in the fallout of its sale to Endeavor exactly 10 years ago (and the eventual creation of the combat sports behemoth TKO), the worldwide leader in MMA enjoyed a boom period as recently as the pandemic when UFC was the first professional sports league to return to schedule amid COVID-19, helping the brand become a household name.  

Still, if you polled any veteran MMA fan regarding what was the most romantically nostalgic year of their UFC fandom, my money would be on 2016 as the prevailing answer. 

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Ten years ago, UFC was riding out the tail end of its landmark broadcasting deal with Fox, just three years away from signing another record-breaking deal with ESPN. And the stars (both literally and figuratively) seemed to align for the promotion as it built toward a July 2016 sale, effectively shifting ownership from Zuffa and the Fertitta brothers to media mogul Ari Emanuel.

UFC 324: Fight card, date, odds and guide as Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett kicks off Paramount+ era

Shakiel Mahjouri

UFC in 2016 was riding the very crest of the wave that was Conor McGregor's peak as the biggest star in the history of the sport. And everything the promotion touched during that year, including a UFC 200 celebration during International Fight Week that produced three championship fight cards in as many nights, seemed to turn to gold. 

McGregor headlined three blockbuster pay-per-view cards over that 12 months (including a pair of legendary scuffles with Nate Diaz) and the promotion was additionally buoyed by the returns from PPV legends Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey. The champions at the time also included a who's who of MMA history from Jon Jones, Jose Aldo and Demetrious Johnson to Max Holloway, Amanda Nunes and Stipe Miocic.

If there was a formula as to how to construct the perfect MMA calendar year, 2016 had it all: Crossover superstars, international expansion, promotional brand power, divisions deep with viable contenders and enough red-hot rivalries to make the title hunt feel like a scripted dramatic television series.  

Taking a gander at both the current roster and the opportunities for the promotion to break through on a crossover level given the Paramount deal (which removes the paywall of PPV), there's starting to become a feeling that 2026 has the potential to be as memorable a year as UFC has had since that memorable year just a decade ago. 

It should go without saying that magical promotional years tend to thrive more upon luck than the results of best-laid plans. But the pieces are in place for UFC in 2026 should it play its cards right entering Saturday's kickoff to the new broadcast deal at UFC 324 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

First and foremost, in addition to the annual "major" events like IFW, New York's Madison Square Garden in November and the typically loaded October trips to Abu Dhabi, the UFC has plans for a supercard on June 14 on the south lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., that UFC president and CEO Dana White has routinely predicted will be the biggest and most unique event in company history. 

Then, there is the large potential of big-name returns, including many stars who were in the midst of their physical primes back in 2016 but are now looking for superfights like McGregor, Jones and Nunes. And the list of possible must-see dream fights this year is an incredible one, including Jones-Alex Pereira, McGregor-Diaz III, Kayla Harrison-Nunes, Nunes-Valentina Shevchenko III and a matchup of the top two pound-for-pound rated fighters of the moment, Islam Makhachev-Ilia Topuria.

Gimmick fights like nostalgic comebacks and champion versus champion bouts can only take you so far, however. What is also needed are crowded title pictures that could use immediate sorting and 2026 has the potential for a ton of those, as well, including the Sean O'Malley-Song Yadong and Umar Nurmagomedov-Deiveson Figueiredo bantamweight fights that could produce an immediate challenger for two-time champion Petr Yan, who would just as easily find himself in a trilogy bout against former divisional king Merab Dvalishvili. 

There's also expected to be drama at women's bantamweight with Harrison, Nunes and the possibility of Shevchenko moving up from flyweight. The same can be said for heavyweight once champion Tom Aspinall returns from surgery on both eyes given that not only is Ciryl Gane waiting for a rematch but Pereira and Jones are vying for big fights. 

Over at lightweight, the winner of the Gaethje-Pimblett interim title fight will likely find themselves in a spot to face anyone from Topuria, the full champion who is attending to personal issues following a recent divorce, to ceremonial "BMF" champion Holloway and top contender Arman Tsarukyan. 

The deepest and most interesting division in the sport in 2026, however, is expected to be welterweight where the new champion Makhachev has a list of title-ready foes lining up to go through one another to get their shot at gold including Shavkat Rakhmonov, Ian Machado Garry, Michael Morales and Carlos Prates. 

The new year should also provide the testing ground for many of the UFC's top future champions of tomorrow. One of those names, 24-year-old Joshua Van, closed 2025 by upsetting Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight title and he joins a pack of promising names looking to bust out like Payton Talbott (bantamweight), Kevin Vallejos (featherweight) and middleweights Ateba Gautier (who returns on Saturday), Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev and Baisangur Susurkaev. There's also the potential of heavyweight prospect and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson signing with UFC amid expectations that he's ready for elite competition right away. 

Capturing lightning in a bottle from the standpoint of fight promotion is far from an exact science. But there's little doubt that UFC has put itself in a position to carve out a truly memorable year in 2026 and one that could end up being historically relevant.