UFC 326 fight card: Max Holloway to defend 'BMF' title against Charles Oliveira in March

The UFC 326 main event is set, and it has all the potential to establish the 2026 fight of the year by March 7. Las Vegas will see Max Holloway defend the symbolic "BMF" championship against Charles Oliveira. UFC CEO Dana White announced the fight at the UFC 323 press conference on Friday.

Holloway had already established a sure-fire Hall of Fame resume when he added the BMF belt to his mantle. One of the best action fighters of the era, Holloway won the featherweight championship with a TKO victory over Jose Aldo in June 2017. He made four successful defenses of the belt before dropping the title to Alexander Volkanovski.

Holloway's only losses in the past decade have come against the elite of the elite, with a loss to Dustin Poirier, three losses to Volkanovski and a loss to Ilia Topuria, all in championship bouts. Holloway avenged the loss to Poirier in his most recent fight, taking a decision at UFC 318 to retain the BMF title he won with an iconic knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300.

Holloway is the only fighter to have successfully defended the BMF belt.

Oliveira is a former lightweight champion, winning the vacant title at UFC 262 after Khabib Nurmagomedov retired as champion. Oliveira successfully defended the title with a win over Poirier before missing weight for a fight with Gaethje and being stripped of the belt.

Oliveira has gone 3-3 over his six most recent fights, including losing lightweight title matches against Islam Makhachev and Topuria. Despite a recent uneven run, Oliveira is one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, having won 18 fight bonuses (including a record 14 Performance of the Night bonuses), holding the record for most finishes in UFC history (21) and most submission victories in UFC history (17).