For some reason, the “Baddest Motherf—ker” title is still a thing after its last boring outing.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira will make his first “BMF” title defense against two-time Featherweight title challenger Diego Lopes in the UFC 335 main event on Sat., Dec. 12, 2026, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the co-main event, former two-division champion Alex Pereira makes his second Heavyweight appearance against former interim title
challenger and fellow knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich.
UFC also announced a major Middleweight matchup between No. 4-ranked contender Joe Pyfer and super prospect Bo Nickal.
Check out the UFC 335 announcement below:
Oliveira (37-11) captured the “BMF” championship with a dominant victory over Max Holloway. It was a one-sided performance that proved “Do Bronx” remains one of the best Lightweights in the world — even if it wasn’t exactly a fight anyone will rush to watch again.
The Brazilian is riding a two-fight winning streak since suffering a knockout loss to Ilia Topuria.
Lopes (28-8), meanwhile, will move up to 155 pounds after spending nearly his entire professional career at Featherweight, aside from several Bantamweight appearances before joining UFC.
The 31-year-old returned to the win column in his most recent outing, knocking out Steve Garcia at UFC Freedom 250 (watch highlights). Before that victory, Lopes had alternated wins and losses, with both defeats coming against Alexander Volkanovski.
Pereira (13-4) will make his first appearance since suffering a stoppage loss to newly crowned Heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event (watch highlights).
“Poatan” now draws another terrifying assignment in Pavlovich (21-3), who is riding a three-fight winning streak. The Russian finally returned to his knockout ways in his last outing, needing only 39 seconds to dispatch Tallison Teixeira (watch highlights).
Putting those two inside the same cage feels less like matchmaking and more like testing explosives.
Pyfer (16-3) will put his No. 4 ranking and four-fight winning streak on the line against one of UFC’s most heavily promoted prospects. “Bodybagz” is coming off the biggest victory of his career, stopping former Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (watch highlights).
Nickal (9-1) has responded to the first loss of his professional career with consecutive victories. The decorated wrestler most recently knocked out Kyle Daukaus in the first round at UFC Freedom 250 (watch highlights).
UFC 335 is not exactly subtle: a “BMF” title fight, two Heavyweight wrecking balls and a Middleweight prospect collision with possible championship implications?
Someone is probably getting slept in “Sin City.”
To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.
