By Andrew Sanchez March 17, 2026
UFC 326 in Las Vegas left fans, including myself, disappointed March 7.
It feels like UFC is leaving meat on the bone with these events, as the company focuses on quantity over quality.
The main event of the night was supposed to be the best fight of the year between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, two fighters fans love, for the BMF (Baddest Mother F—-r) belt, a title the UFC created for the most entertaining fights.
The BMF belt was created in 2019 specifically for a fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, two fighters who are known to give everything they got within the octagon. This inaugural bout kicked off the energy for the title fights that followed, including future hall of famers Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje until this year’s event.
Rather than the crazy highlights fans have grown accustomed to seeing and displays of striking talent that leave you thinking about it for months, we were met with an impressive grappling display from Oliveira, one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters who dominated Holloway for the entirety of the fight by taking him down whenever he wanted and keeping him there for entire rounds at a time.
It was a simple path to victory for Oliveira that left a sour taste for everyone who paid to watch because they wanted a war between two of the best the company has to offer.
“The main event wasn’t a BMF fight,” said UFC fanatic and media personality Bryan Dyson. “Sure, if Oliveira does that in any other fight, it’s cool but not for this one. The BMF fights have always been some of the best fights of the year, and this one is the complete opposite. They put the best striker against the best jiu jitsu guy, and we saw hand fighting and ground control for 25 minutes.”
This event only adds to the collection of disappointing UFC events to begin the year with another round of issues for the company but the biggest issue is the downfall of entertainment value and engagement with the audience.
Many believe Dana White is to blame, as he’d rather focus on his other company Zuffa Boxing or making the $8 million White House card, which is set to become the biggest card in UFC history on the south lawn of the White House for President Donald J. Trump’s birthday.
“The White House card getting announced was a nice treat for us at the event, but I still feel like it could’ve been better,” Dyson said. “I wanted Ilia vs. Islam. I feel like that’s the biggest possible fight right now since it would be the two best fighters against each other. Besides the title fights, it feels like they’re just trying to get American fighters wins for the card.”
Now that Dana finally announced the “card of the year,” hopefully he can focus again on the quality of other cards that aren’t at historic locations like the White House. Rather than just announcing the fights on his Instagram live, he could have the UFC put effort into promotional commercials and announcements for the cards.
The UFC claims the three major events of 2026 so far have all been sold out crowds, but as someone who went to UFC 324 in January and UFC 326, I can speak from experience there were empty seats in the crowd. As the first UFC event of 2026 and on the new Paramount deal, UFC 326 was supposed to have one of the best fights of the year, yet I found myself sitting comfortably with empty seats next to me.
The lack of audience engagement is concerning as many people who used to watch the UFC have stopped and now just get updates after the fights have happened, rather than dedicating time for events like in the past.
Along with this, the entertainment value is decreasing, as there are less stars in the UFC than ever before, and although the fighters may be better skill wise, they simply don’t have the personalities to get people excited. For example, if the BMF fight between Holloway and Oliveira was removed, many people would believe the card was simply a fight night card and not a major event worthy to sell out an arena.
The UFC’s inability to create star fighters as big as Conor McGregor and Jon Jones is not all on them, but they could look in the mirror and realize they may already have the necessary pieces in front of them. At the peak of his popularity in the UFC, McGregor headlined the top five selling UFC events, which included UFC 229 that drew 2.4 million PPV buys.
“I miss the early 2010s with Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, the rise of McGregor and even Khabib,” Dyson said. “Now the faces of the UFC are great and all, but they just don’t have the personalities that the legends before them had that would really get fans behind them.”
White became the face of the UFC in 2001 after buying the company for $2 million, prior to fighters being seen as stars and ran the company as the CEO, president and promoter for 15 years until the company sold for $4 billion. This earned White more than $350 million, and he remained as CEO.
White’s pride and confidence in his new businesses, Zuffa Boxing and Power Slap, has seemed to take away his focus and possibly passion from the UFC, which is what he will always be associated with. Many fans and press have asked White about where his passion and desires land, but he dismisses the claims and tells critics to watch how the UFC will perform within the next two years despite his distracted demeanor.
The UFC will always have diehard fans tuning in for the numbered events, but I don’t know if they will ever make it back to the level of entertainment the company has previously had. As a true fan, all I can do is sit back and hope things will improve, and White will seem to care again.
Feature image courtesy of the UFC
