March 7, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Kaio Boralho (red gloves) reacts after defeating Rainier de Riede (blue gloves) at UFC 326 at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvani-Imagn Image LAS VEGAS — Charles Oliveira, 36, shocked the world with a dominant performance to win the BMF belt by unanimous decision, 50-45, at UFC 326 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Oliveira stunned Holloway in the early stages of the first round of the lightweight bout and controlled the fight from that point on, completing five of his 13 takedown attempts and clocking an impressive control time of 20 minutes and 49 seconds. Oliveira’s insistence on continuing the fight on the ground drew boos from fans hoping for a typical BMF-style brawl, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu artist landed strikes at a higher rate and volume than Holloway, in addition to an elite ground performance.
It was a perfect moment for Oliveira, who lost to Holloway in 2015 after suffering shoulder and esophagus injuries on a first-round takedown attempt that forced him to sit out the fight. Oliveira is now the fourth BMF champion in UFC history, following Holloway, Justin Gaethje and Jorge Masvidal.
The co-main event saw “Fighting Nerds” founder Caio Borralho defeat Reiner De Ridder by unanimous decision 30-27, but the fight was certainly more competitive than the final scorecard indicated. Nonetheless, Boralho has bounced back from a disappointing loss to Nasordin Imabov in September and now has his sights set on former middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, something Boralho mentioned in his post-fight interview.
The second bout on the main card between Drew Dober and Michael Johnson attracted unwanted attention from the betting markets hours before the fight was scheduled to begin. It came after a series of posts on social media led to a drastic line change that saw Johnson move from a -155 favorite last week to a +150 favorite within hours of kicking off the game. Johnson, whose last fight against Alexander Hernández at UFC 324 was canceled due to betting irregularities, was knocked out by Dobert’s thunderous left hook at 1:53 of the second round.
Fighting for the first time on the main card of a numbered UFC event, rising 21-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. produced a clinical wrestling performance against 13th-ranked bantamweight Rob Font, earning his fifth straight win and third straight unanimous decision. Rosas Jr. clocked more than 10 minutes of control and scored 16 of 18 takedown attempts, putting together one of the most dominant performances of his young career to date.
The main card was a huge success thanks to Gregory “RoboCop” Rodriguez’s first-round knockout loss to Bruno Ferreira at UFC 283. He scored a first-round knockout on just his second strike attempt 1 minute and 47 seconds into Saturday’s fight. Since his first loss to Pereira in 2023, Rodriguez has won six of his last seven fights, including four by KO/TKO.
–Will Depart, Field Level Media
