UFC 335, the promotion’s last PLE of 2026, continues to fill out with some interesting fights. The main and co-main at that event are fascinating, with Charles Oliveira meeting Diego Lopes for the BMF belt and Sergei Pavlovich attempting to possibly retire Alex Pereira.
A few days ago we learned that Brandon Moreno would be meeting Charles Johnson on the main card, too. That will be fun. And last night we learned two more flyweights have landed on the card.
According to Marcel Dorff, Maycee Barber
and Carli Judice are set to tangle on December 12, too.
This will be Barber’s first fight since she was thoroughly memed by Alexa Grasso in March, for what will likely go down as the knockout of the year. Judice is coming off a first round finish over Jeisla Chaves in August.
This is an interesting, potentially changing of the guard, fight at women’s flyweight. And it might be a sign that the UFC thinks Barber has, in the words of Din Thomas, gone “as far as she can go.”
Barber was somewhat of a UFC darling when she hit the scene in 2018 and was projected to be a future title challenger, despite being only 20 at the time. She’s managed to record a 10-3 record since then. However, she’s also been a classic case of someone taking one step forward, two steps back.
Herloss to Roxanne Modafferi as a -850 favorite, her long hiatus over a mystery illness, her no-show in the APEX for the Erin Blanchfield fight and the epic first round KO loss to Grasso have all made her ascension to title contender status seem very doubtful.
And now, at 28, she gets matched up with someone slightly younger, on a win streak, who is ranked five spots below her. Feels like a make-or-break moment for Maycee.
Judice must be relishing the opportunity to leapfrog Barber into the top ten. She’s on one heck of a run right now. After two split decisions to start her UFC career, she’s won four in a row and displayed some of the sharpest striking in the division. She’s scored three finishes in that run, including ahead kick, knee to the liver and body kick.
Barber vs. Judice wasn’t the only UFC 335 fight announced yesterday. We also learned that Junior Tafa would be fighting Quentin Pasley. And that’s all you need to know about that one.
