UFC 326 was a bit of a weak card on paper as far as numbered events from the promotion go, one that was bound to live and die by its main event.
With that said, it finished the night on life support at best.
Charles Oliveira opted to rely on his grappling, for the most part, in the night’s main event, a rematch with Max Holloway for the latter’s “BMF” title. Oliveira won the fight, but got a mixed reaction from fans who had anticipated a war for the belt meant to be held by the “baddest” man in MMA.
With a lack of strong candidates for Fight of the Night at UFC 326, the promotion instead opted to award four Performance of the Night bonuses, to the only four finishes on the card. Among them, Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues won big money for his one-punch walk-off KO of Brunno Ferreira. The fight was a rematch dating back to 2023, when Ferreira finished Rodrigues.
One fight later, lightweight knockout leader Drew Dober got his hands on Michael “The Menace” Johnson and put him away. Those two fights were a course correction from a dire start to the CBS-broadcast portion of the card. With the promotion on the broadcast network for the first time, a two-hour block including prelim and main card bouts, viewers had to sit through an iffy fight between Donte Johnson and Cody Brundage, then a foul-fest featuring Cody Garbrandt and Xiao Long.
After suffering repeated low blows, Garbrandt was left on his knees, vomiting into a bucket.
Rodolfo Bellato, Alberto Montes, who both had finishes on the prelims, earned the remaining two Performance of the Night bonuses at UFC 326. All four fighters pick up $100,000 for their efforts.
UFC 326 had a gate of $8.3 million, with a sold out attendance figure of 19,480, per UFC CEO and President Dana White.
