The fight world has been waiting for this event for roughly a year. An unthinkable show, the first-ever professional sporting event to be hosted on the White House grounds. Yes, winning teams from the NBA, NHL, and so on have visited the White House. The President has phoned Super Bowl champions in years past.

But the UFC, once called “human cockfighting” by the late Republican Senator and presidential candidate John McCain, is going one step further and making history.

Much has been said about the lack of star power on the card: No Jon Jones or Conor McGregor (the first being retired, the second making his return next month during International Fight Week). Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje promises to be a banger, however. Josh Hokit is coming off a Fight of the Year effort, and now has to contend with the UFC’s knockout king in Derrick Lewis. Alex Pereira is arguably the UFC’s biggest star these days, at least until McGregor gets back, and he’s looking to claim gold in a third weight class, in an interim heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane.

There are plenty of fighting storylines. There are plenty of political ones. There’s only one night of fights at the White House, barring severe weather delays, and that’s tonight. Our picks are in, so let’s see how we predict things will play out at UFC Freedom 250.

Writer / Fight	Lopes vs. Garcia	Nickal vs. Daukaus	Ruffy vs. Chandler	Hokit vs. Lewis	O'Malley vs. Zahabi	Pereira vs. Gane	Topuria vs. Gaethje
Mathis Desjardins (63-26)
Alex Behunin (72-34)
Brett Cagle (69-33)
Patrick Danna (51-27)
Jay Anderson (65-41)
Chris Prawdzik (38-28)
Eddie Law (61-45)

Surprisingly or not, there was just two unanimous selections among our crew for UFC Freedom 250, and one of those was in the main event. No one feels that Justin Gaethje will pull off the upset of Ilia Topuria. To be fair, Gaethje is the underdog, but as one of the most violent men in MMA history, perhaps we’re overlooking him just a little.

The other landslide comes in Aiemann Zahabi vs. Sean O’Malley, with former bantamweight champ “Suga” Sean favored to win.

Every other fight had at least one dissenting opinion, though many are rather lopsided.

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Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, a Chechen with ties to dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, faces American Sean Strickland in the fiery main event. A divisive figure with half of fight fans seeing Strickland as a loudmouth and  the other half as a free speech champion, “Tarzan” has done his best to get under Chimaev’s skin all week long. Calling him a terrorist due to his ties to Kadyrov, and a lot worse, Strickland appeared to have achieved the result he was looking for when Chimaev attempted to land a low blow during Thursday’s pre-fight press conference.

Whether or not agitating the unbeaten “Borz” pays off inside the octagon is another matter, of course.

In the night’s co-main event, Josh Van looks to make the first defense of his flyweight title opposite Japan’s Tatsuro Taira. It’s the first time two fighters born after 2000 will compete for UFC gold, and the first all-Asian title fight among UFC men (Weili Zhang and Yan Xiaonan beat them to it on the women’s side). Still a huge fight, as Van noted, for the Asian community. And should Taira win, he’ll become the first-ever Japanese UFC champion.

Our picks are in for UFC 328 — check below to see who we feel will come out on top.

Writer / Fight	Green vs. Stephens	Brady vs. Buckley	Volkov vs. Cortes-Acosta	Van vs. Taira	Chimaev vs. Strickland
Brett Cagle (54-23)
Mathis Desjardins (47-21)
Alex Behunin (52-27)
Jay Anderson (49-30)
Eddie Law (47-32)
Chris Prawdzik (31-25)

One thing is clear: our crew does not like Sean Strickland’s chances against Khamzat Chimaev on Saturday. Only one writer responding selected Strickland to dethrone “Borz.” Perhaps surprisingly, Tatsuro Taira was also close to a lock to unseat champ Josh Van.

King Green was the strongest favorite of the night, taking 100% of our picks. Not surprising, with opponent Jeremy Stephens having missed weight for the lightweight main card opener after being out for a year.

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This time around, there was Canadian content in the main event, as Mike Malott looked to extend his win streak at welterweight against former title challenger Gilbert Burns. Despite being on a four-fight skid Burns remained ranked at 170lbs, and could be looked at as Malott’s toughest test to date.

Canada had plenty of fighters representing the country at UFC Winnipeg, with nine in total fighting at home. Among them, Charles Jourdain, facing Kyler Phillips in the co-main event, and Jasmine Jasudavicius, who was taking on Karine Silva in a key women’s flyweight fight on the main card.

Also on the main card and making his promotional debut, Mandel Nallo. The former Bellator standout was paired up with England’s Jai Herbert, entering his 10th fight under the UFC banner.

A big night for Canada, plus a lot of debuts. The five-fight main card was set to be kicked off by veteran Thiago Moises, taking on Gauge Young, who had dragged Winnipeg during Fight Week, calling it a “dump.”

Our picks are in for Saturday’s event! Check below to see how we expect it all to play out.

Writer / Fight	Moises vs. Young	Jasudavicius vs. Silva	Herbert vs. Nallo	Jourdain vs. Phillips	Burns vs. Malott
Brett Cagle (46-15)
Mathis Desjardins (38-13)
Alex Behunin (43-19)
Patrick Danna (41-21)
Jay Anderson (40-22)
Eddie Law (38-24)

Not surprisingly, no one was siding with Gauge Young, the upstart paired up against UFC veteran Thiago Moises. Jasmine Jasudavicius, meanwhile, was looking at a clean sweep against Karine Silva. We were pretty high on Mandel Nallo’s debut, with the 36-year old Contender Series winner taking on Jai Herbert. All but one writer responding sided with Nallo.

Things were a little more split in the co-main event between Kyler Phillips and Charles Jourdain. A pick ’em.

As for “Proper” Mike Malott, he was a heavy favorite against ex-title challenger Gilbert Burns.

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UFC CEO and President Dana White had let slip that the promotion would announce the line-up for the June spectacle at the White House at some point on Saturday night. The smart money was that the announcement would come during the CBS portion of the broadcast. Either way, it was now super easy to overlook what was essentially a weak numbered card, albeit one with a super fun main event featuring a rematch between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira over a decade in the making.

Little more than kids when they first met in 2015, both fighters had gone on to claim gold: Holloway at featherweight, Oliveira at lightweight. Holloway now held the UFC’s symbolic “BMF” championship, which was on the line Saturday night.

Our picks are in for UFC 326 (maybe we should have done a “who will be on UFC White House” pool)! Check them out below.

Writer / Fight	Rodrigues vs. Ferreira 2	Dober vs. Johnson	Font vs. Rosas Jr	Borralho vs. de Ridder	Holloway vs. Oliveira 2
Eddie Law
Jay Anderson
Brett Cagle
Alex Behunin
Mathis Desjardins
Chris Prawdzik
Destiny McCubbin
Patrick Danna

Not a lot of dissention among the ranks for this one. No one sees Brunno Ferreira getting a second win over Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues in their card-opening rematch.

One fight later, Drew Dober appears to be a lock against Michael Johnson.

Only two writers are siding with Rob Font in his fight with young up-and-comer Raul Rosas Jr, a bout originally booked for Noche UFC last year. Two also see Reinier de Ridder winning over Caio Borralho, a heavy favorite with our crew.

The main event? All Holloway all day.

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Well, first title defense of his second reign at 145lbs, anyway.

Lopes, for his part, has fought since the pair’s first encounter at UFC 314. He beat Jean Silva at Noche UFC back in September, a finish that appeared to push him past surging contenders Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy (those two will face off later this year in what absolutely has to be a title eliminator).

In the meantime, Volkanovski gets Lopes at home in Australia on Saturday, while Dan Hooker faces Benoit Saint-Denis in a lightweight co-main event. Also in action, Rafael Fiziev takes on Fighting Nerd Mauricio Ruffy, who will be looking to build on the success of teammate Jean “Lord” Silva at UFC 324 last weekend.

Our picks are in for the second UFC card of 2026! Here’s how we see the main card going down.

Writer / Fight	Salkilld vs. Mullarkey	Tuivasa vs. Teixeira	Fiziev vs. Ruffy	Hooker vs. Saint-Denis	Volaknovski vs. Lopes
Jay Anderson
Eddie Law
Mathis Desjardins
Alex Behunin
Chris Prawdzik
Brett Cagle
Patrick Danna

Perhaps surprisingly, there was not much variation in our picks this week. Quillan Salkilld is a lock in his fight against fellow Australian Jamie Mullarkey, despite Mullarkey’s veteran status. Likewise, our crew sees heavyweight Tallison Teixeira getting the better of Tai Tuivasa at home.

That one, perhaps, is less surprising, since Tuivasa has been out for a year, and is on a serious rough patch.

Still, absolutely no one chose Dan Hooker in the co-main event, despite Hooker fighting in his own back yard. And while the main event wasn’t unanimous, we’re siding with Alexander Volkanovski getting the repeat against Diego Lopes.

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How did we do last year? Well, everyone ended up batting over .500, so there’s that. But it’s a clean slate regardless, and an interesting card to start the year, with a number of old guard versus new match-ups to be found.

That includes the main event. It seems like just yesterday that WSOF lightweight champ Justin Gaethje, that promotion’s biggest star, showed up in the UFC. In reality, it was nearly nine years ago, and Gaethje has been at the top of the division ever since. He’s won an interim title before, opposite Tony Ferguson in 2020, and infamously threw it on the ground. He’s come up short twice in attempts to earn the undisputed UFC lightweight championship, but did lay claim to the “BMF” title for a while, defeating Dustin Poirier to hold that belt.

What Gaethje truly wants is one last run at an undisputed title, and that starts with Paddy Pimblett on Saturday night. Pimblett, once a Cage Warriors star, has taken the UFC by storm, rising quickly up the rankings in terms of both opponents, and star power. Paddy “The Baddy” has been electrifying and entertaining since day one, but though he’s faced the likes of King Green, Tony Ferguson, and Michael Chandler, Gaethje is a different beast (one who has defeated both Ferguson and Chandler, for that matter).

The slate is clean, and our picks are in for the first big event of 2026, UFC 324!

Writer / Fight	Allen vs. Silva	Silva vs. Namajunas	Cortes-Acosta vs. Lewis	O'Malley vs. Yadong	Gaethje vs. Pimblett
Cade Morehouse
Jay Anderson
Eddie Law
Brett Cagle
Patrick Danna
Mathis Desjardins
Chris Prawdzik
Alex Behunin

Well, we clearly see a changing of the guard happening on Saturday. And a couple of the landslide picks may raise eyebrows. No one is siding with featherweight contender Arnold Allen against Jean Silva (actually, one late response means someone is, but still). That, despite Silva coming off a loss (a finish even) at the hands of Diego Lopes last September.

Likewise, it seems Natalia Silva is a lock against former women’s strawweight champ “Thug” Rose Namajunas, in their flyweight fight— one that could prove to be a title eliminator.

Song Yadong? He’s apparently the Rodney Dangerfield of China, getting absolutely no respect against Sean O’Malley. Not a single writer responding selected Yadong to get the better of the former champion.

Derrick Lewis versus Waldo Cortes-Acosta was a little more divided, meanwhile. Lewis holds a slight edge there. And the main event? Perhaps surprisingly, it’s Pimblett getting the nod, by a six to two margin.

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It also affords Merab Dvalishvili a chance to make history, as the bantamweight champion looks to become the first man to defend his title four times in a calendar year.

Looking to play spoiler and earn revenge is ex-champ Petr Yan. The Russian was soundly defeated by Dvalishvili, losing via decision as the Georgian made his run to the UFC’s 135lb title.

In Saturday’s co-main event, Alexandre “The Cannibal” Pantoja was looking to make the fifth defense of his flyweight title, against upstart Joshua Van. Another young prospect, Payton Talbott, was standing opposite Hendry Cejudo in Triple C’s retirement fight.

Our crew has their picks ready for the final UFC numbered event of 2025. Let’s get to them!

Writer / Fight	Blachowicz vs. Guskov	Cejudo vs. Talbott	Moreno vs. Taira	Pantoja vs. Van	Dvalishvili vs. Yan 2
Eddie Law (135-76)
Alex Behunin (128-77)
Chris Prawdzik
Mathis Dejardins
Brett Cagle
Jay Anderson
Patrick Danna

There was but a single unanimous selection among our writers responding for UFC 323, and that was champ Merab Dvalishvili. With a machine-like 14-fight win streak, no one sees Petr Yan winning this rematch. It’s hard to argue against Dvalishvili, who has been one of the most dominant fighters in the UFC over the past couple of years.

A couple of writers do see Joshua Van upsetting flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja, but the majority are still siding with the incumbent champ. Payton Talbott has the edge over Henry Cejudo, and Bogdan Guskov is a fairly heavy favorite against ex-champ Jan Blachowicz to open the PPV card.

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Chimaev’s rise to the top was slowed by illness, injury and inactivity, allowing South Africa’s “Stillknocks,” who joined the promotion months after him, to claim gold back in January of 2024 in Toronto. He’s since defended the belt twice, against Israel Adesanya and the man he originally won it from, Sean Strickland.

Khamzat, however, is the man many see as the toughest test for the reigning champ. The division is wide open, with plenty of title contenders including Anthony Hernandez, Reinier de Ridder, and the winner of the upcoming Caio Borralho vs. Nassourdine Imavov. Yet the fast rise of Chimaev, and his dominant victories especially early in his UFC run, have him favored over champ Du Plessis.

Aaron Pico, meanwhile, finally makes his UFC debut in Saturday’s co-main event. Originally booked against Movsar Evloev, the former Bellator star now faces unbeaten featherweight standout Lerone Murphy.

Our picks are in for UFC 319 in Chicago – here’s how we see the PPV card playing out!

Writer / Fight	Elliott vs. Asakura	Cannonier vs. Page	Neal vs. Prates	Murphy vs. Pico	Du Plessis vs. Chimaev
Alex Behunin (88-50)
Eddie Law (89-54)
Mathis Desjardins (84-53)
Chris Prawdzik (67-46)
Brett Cagle (81-56)
Jay Anderson (83-60)
Patrick Danna (20-13)

Our team is very much aligned on the first two fights of the UFC 319 main card, as Kai Asakura and Michael “Venom” Page are unanimous picks in their fights against Tim Elliott and Jared Cannonier. Carlos Prates is a very heavy favorite with our crew as well, as all but one writer responding sees him getting the better of Geoff Neal.

Things are a bit closer in the co-main and main events, but not by much. Aaron Pico is favored to win his debut against Lerone Murphy, with a 5-2 edge, while Dricus Du Plessis sees the same margin in his fight with Khamzat Chimaev.

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To recap, Ilia Topuria vacated his featherweight title to move to lightweight, where he’ll face Charles Oliveira for the 155lb belt vacated by Islam Makhachev. The Dagestani vacating was due to teammate Belal Muhammad losing his welterweight title to Jack Della Maddalena in May; Makhachev will now pursue a second title of his own later this year. Alexander Volkanovski reclaimed his featherweight title in April at UFC 314, after Topuria vacated, and just to add into the fun and chaos, Jon Jones retired, vacating his heavyweight title and allowing interim champ Tom Aspinall to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.

That last bit has nothing to do with UFC 317, though the news has overshadowed the card somewhat, which caps off this year’s International Fight Week. All those other moves, however, have led to Saturday’s main event, where one of two outcomes are most likely: Ilia Topuria remains undefeated and becomes a two-division champion, or Charles Oliveira reclaims gold and becomes a multi-time lightweight champ.

The UFC’s submissions leader never technically lost his 155lb title, but was rather stripped of it in 2022 after missing weight for his fight with Justin Gaethje at UFC 274, due to a miscalibrated scale. After failing to reclaim the vacant belt against Makhachev that same year, Oliveira has fought sporadically, going 2-1 since.

That title fight overshadows a very competitive bout between flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja and New Zealand’s Kai Kara-France, which serves as the night’s co-headliner. Kara-France, another City Kickboxing product, has been circling the title picture for a while now.

Our picks are in for UFC 317; see below for how we see the main card playing out.

Writer / Fight	Talbott vs. Lima	Dariush vs. Moicano	Royval vs. Van	Pantoja vs. Kara-France	Topuria vs. Oliveira
Mathis Dejardins (66-38)
Eddie Law (69-41)
Alex Behunin (69-41)
Jay Anderson (66-44)
Brett Cagle (62-42)
Chris Prawdzik (54-38)
Patrick Danaa (6-6)
Cade Morehouse (14-16)

First off, the obvious. No unanimous selections this week. Our crew wasn’t exactly divided, and there were some heavy favorites, but no landslides. Well, depending on your definition of a landslide. Only one writer responding sided with Charles Oliveira and Kai Kara-France, after all.

Brandon Royval was a relatively heavy favorite over the streaking Josh Van, while Dariush vs. Moicano and Talbott vs. Lima were a bit closer.

The post UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira Main Card Staff Picks appeared first on Cageside Press.

The question is, just what are those implications, or perhaps more accurately, when might they come to pass?

Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield headline the card, arguably the two most talked about up-and-coming talents at flyweight the past few years. Barber, “The Future,” once vowed to be the youngest ever UFC champion, and while she missed her mark, she’s very much in the running for a shot at gold. And while Blanchfied’s win streak doesn’t stretch as far back thanks to a loss to Manon Fiorot, her resume might be even stronger.

What, however, does the winner of Blanchfield vs. Barber, a fight the promotion tried to make a few years ago, truly get? It all depends on whether now is the time for Weili Zhang to move to 125lbs and face Valentina Shevchenko. Should that come to pass, the winner of Blanchfield vs. Barber likely gets Natalia Silva next, in a title eliminator. Should Silva be next up for gold and Zhang stick to 115lbs, well, the UFC Vegas 107 main event winner might just be in line for a title shot.

Our picks are in for Saturday’s Fight Night card – here’s how we see it all going down.

Writer / Fight	Reese vs. Todorovic	Vieira vs. Chiasson	Jacoby vs. Lopes	Brahimaj vs. Goff	Gamrot vs. Klein	Blanchfield vs. Barber
Eddie Law (56-32)
Alex Behunin (56-32)
Chris Prawdzik (46-30)
Patrick McCorry (47-31)
Mathis Desjardins (53-35)
Brett Cagle (52-36)
Jay Anderson (51-37)

Maycee Barber didn’t do herself any favors by missing weight on Friday, even if it was by only half a pound. All but one of our writers sees Erin Blanchfield coming out on top on Saturday. As for the co-main event, it’s a clean sweep for Mateusz Gamrot against the unranked L’udovit Klein.

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