It may not have shocked the world, but UFC 327 was a reminder that, when so inspired, the UFC can still put on a very solid night of fights from top to bottom.

In fact, it was a good enough night for me to dust off this old “Aftermath” series (far from original, others sites have done them as well) for the second time in 2026. Probably because, in an era of poor booking and Apex Slop, when an event shines, it outright dazzles.

The Battle of Bellator Finally Arrives, and Does Not Disappoint

Ladies and gentleman, Aaron Pico.

The Aaron Pico we saw competing on Saturday at UFC 327 was not, despite online hyperbole, the best Pico we’ve ever seen. We have, in fact, seen a better Aaron Pico. He took too many lunging shots, was a little out of position a little too often. Peak Bellator Pico had better nights, if we’re being honest.

Yet it was a far better Aaron Pico who showed up at UFC 327 than the one who appeared in his UFC debut, and he has the win to prove it. Make no mistake, despite the loss to Lerone Murphy last year, Pico is a player in the UFC’s featherweight division. He always was. And now that the horse is out of the gate, let’s see how far he can ride.

Patricio Pitbull, were he the Pitbull of just a few years ago, would be a player as well. Now 1-2 in the UFC, at 38, it’s clear he has a ceiling. There are some fun fights for him, but I’ll go out on a very thick limb here and suggest he’ll never fight for the UFC’s featherweight title.

That said, Pitbull kept the fight with Pico interesting. One of the biggest Bellator MMA fights ever played out in the UFC octagon, and it didn’t disappoint. Bellator Never Die.

The Win that Wasn’t: Jiri Prochazka Sees Title Slip Through His Fingers

The win that wasn’t is how you can look at the UFC 327 main event.

Jiri Prochazka had the win in the bag after Carlos Ulberg either blew out his ACL or suffered a similar knee injury early in their headlining fight. No way Ulberg was ever going to be able to continue into the second round. A limping, lame duck rather than the “Black Jag” — right up until Prochazka got caught by a wounded cat striking out.

Check left hook, lights out.

Prochazka said after the fight that he had felt mercy for Ulberg, and didn’t move in for the kill like he should have. Instead, he took his foot off the gas. I’m not sure I agree fully; watching the fight, he absolutely targeted Ulberg’s leg. Yet Jiri did show more of a reserved approach considering how badly injured Ulberg was, so in the end, there is some truth to his words.

Ulberg, for one, felt Prochazka made the wrong choice. “I feel like he made the mistake there, because I would not have done the same,” the UFC’s new light heavyweight champ said following the win. “If you were in there to get that title, you do whatever it takes to get that win.”

This loss is going to haunt Jiri Prochazka for a while. He had the title in his grasp, and let it slip away. How he handles it, and bounces back, will be key. A former champion who vacated due to injury, Prochakza has dropped title fights to Alex Pereira and Ulberg now. He’s popular enough to earn another crack at gold, but he’ll need a few wins to get there. And he has only himself to blame.

Josh Hokit Is Here to Stay

Love him or hate him, and so many do the latter, but Josh Hokit is here to stay.

The Clown Prince of the heavyweight division might stumble on the mic, but he sure knows how to fight. Am I right, Miami?

Don’t take me aping Hokit’s public persona as any sort of endorsement. His routine is less late-career Chael Sonnen (when he was better on the mic, but found himself giving less in fights), and more Colby “Chaos Cringe” Covington. Just like Dana White isn’t a fan of it, it’s not my cup of tea either. Like White, however, I must concede: Hokit came to fight, and we might as well all stop harping on it, because if Josh Hokit continues to fight like that, the dumb pro wrestling promos and vaguely racist caricatures will be overshadowed anyway. In fact if he keeps fighting like he did at UFC 327, going to war with Curtis Blaydes in one of the best heavyweight fights of all time, the antics might just go away entirely.

Honestly, you don’t need them when you fight like that. And we’d all be better for it.

What Hokit did on Saturday was phenomenal. The unranked heavyweight walked into the Kaseya Center, came out guns blazing, and proved that, after both men had emptied their gas tanks, he had both the chin to withstand punches from a man 30 pounds heavier, and the wherewithal to keep himself in the fight as it drew on. The pair set a significant strikes record for heavyweight, with most of those apparently landing on “Razor” Blaydes’s face. Blaydes is now out with a broken nose and a broken orbital, while Hokit will be fighting Derrick Lewis on the Freedom 250 card at the White House.

It would be easy to write Hokit off as a clown because, well, he’s acted like one. Yet you can’t at this point. If he gets past Lewis, there are only a handful of names left ahead of him. If he doesn’t, Hokit isn’t going anywhere regardless, he’ll just be on a slower path. Credit where it’s due.

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Carlos Ulberg

What a clutch win by the Kiwi. With an obvious injury to his right leg, it looked like a Jiri Prochazka victory was a formality. Ulberg probably wouldn’t have been cleared by his corner or the doctor for a second round, so he had to take care of Prochazka in this opening round, with a compromised leg. And that’s exactly what he did. He landed his favourite shot, a clean left hook, and put Jiri out cold.

As for what’s next for the newly crowned champion, anything is on the table. The top contenders are all coming off losses, so maybe Paulo Costa’s win over Murzakanov will be enough to sneak into a title fight. Should Alex Pereira be unsuccessful in his bid at heavyweight and look to come back down, an immediate title shot would certainly be in the cards. And who knows how long Ulberg’s recovery from his leg injury will take? Maybe by the time he’s ready to come back a clear number one contender will have emerged. If Bogdan Guskov puts out Jan Blachowicz in highlight reel fashion, he might steal the number one slot. For now, though, it’s difficult to find someone with a better case than Paulo Costa.

Ulberg’s next fight: Paulo Costa

Paulo Costa

Despite barely holding on to a ranking at middleweight, the Brazilian knocked out the undefeated, top10-ranked Azamat Murzakanov in the third round. Light-heavyweight being the state that it is, who knows what could be next for “The Eraser”. I love the idea of Costa facing off with Jiri Prochazka, but Jiri should look to take some time off after getting brutally put out by Ulberg. With Magomed Ankalaev, Khalil Rountree Jr., Jamahal Hill and the aforementioned Prochazka all coming off losses, Costa may just currently have the best case for a title shot, as wild as that sounds.

Costa’s next fight: Carlos Ulberg

Josh Hokit

Usually we hear that the UFC “doesn’t make fights the night of,” but Josh Hokit’s brawl with Curtis Blaydes was too good not to stick him on the White House card right away. Time will tell if fighting Derrick Lewis barely two months after taking over one hundred strikes from Curtis Blaydes will pay off, but for now, there’s no matchmaking needed for me to make on my end.

Hokit’s next fight: Derrick Lewis

Dominick Reyes

Dominick Reyes may have gotten back in the win column, but we can’t pretend he did it in impressive fashion. Johnny Walker has been quite a vulnerable target for any decent puncher at 205 pounds, but Reyes still put on a pretty anemic performance and did just enough to get away with a split decision. He doesn’t deserve a big fight after a performance like this, so I think the loser of the upcoming Blachowicz/Guskov rematch makes sense.

Reyes’ next fight: Blachowicz/Guskov 2 loser

Cub Swanson

Getting back-to-back knockouts like the ones Swanson got against Billy Quarantillo and now Nate Landwehr, Killer Cub clearly still has it. But 42 years of age is a good time to call it a career and props to Cub, the last remaining WEC alumni, for going out on a high note like this one. Happy retirement Cub!

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Of UFC 327’s 12 bouts, five were on the main card, with three finishes and the retirement WEC and UFC legend, Cub Swanson. Theme for this fight card’s losers, definitely upsets, leaving five guys to find new dance partners for.

Jiri Prochazaka

(#3) Carlos Ulberg flatlined (#2) Jiri Prochazaka with a check hook and follow up ground n’ pound to capture the vacant UFC light heavyweight title on Saturday night in Miami. Jiri practically fumbled at the one-yard line, so to speak, as Carlos suffered a catastrophic knee injury just movements earlier. The New Zeeland based fighter couldn’t even put weight on his leg- a stinging defeat for Jiri.

Best matchup for Jiri here would be to give him the winner of the Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov fight. That bout is scheduled for UFC 328 in May so the timing could work well. Miraculously, Jiri has yet to face former light heavyweight champ, Blachowicz,l or rising contender Bogdan Guskov. Both men are coming off a majority decision draw to each other back in December. This rematch should determine who faces Jiri. Bogdan is riding a four-fight unbeaten streak and is 4-1-1 in the UFC only having lost to (#9) Volkan Oezdemir in 2023.

Jan on the other hand, is in an interesting situation. He’s 1-2-2 since losing his belt to Glover Teixeira back in 2021. Both fighters are obviously at completely different spots in their respective careers, but either could make sense and offer a fresh standup matchup with Prochazaka.

Prochazka’s next fight: (#5) Jan Blachowicz vs. (#8) Bogdan Guskov winner

Azamat Murzakanov

(#NR) Paulo Costa stopped a battered and broken (#6) Azamat Murzakanov in the final round of the pair’s fight in the co main event on Sunday. The loss marks the first defeat of Azmazt now 17-fight professional MMA career as he slips to 6-1 with the UFC.

Best fight for Azamat here, considering he was undefeated headed into this and drew a fighter that wasnt even ranked- Johnny Walker. Johnny lost an uneventful split decision to Dominick Reyes earlier in the night. Azamat could need some time following his defeat as he took a surplus of damaging kicks. However, it could still work, and Walker would benefit from a fight against a fighter that truly pushes the standup action like Murzakanov. This matchup could and should be on the main card of a pay per view card. Winner looking for a top fiveish matchup. Just depends on how fast Azamat is ready to comeback.

Murzakanov’s next fight: (#12) Johnny Walker

Curtis Blaydes

(#NR) Josh Hokit shocked nearly everyone in the arena on Saturday with his victory over (#5) Curtis Blaydes, mic work, and immediate turnaround booking with (#8) Derrick Lewis. But Blaydes might have been the most surprised as Hokit avoided drawn-out grappling exchanges and forced one of the better heavyweight standup wars in recent memory. Terrible loss for Curtis here, even though this was an early potential fight of the year candidate.  Curtis is now 2-3 in his last five fights including his unsuccessful shot at the Interim UFC Heavyweight title in 2024, opposite of Tom Aspinal.

A good matchup for Curtis is to give him the winner of Shamil Gaziev vs. Brandon Pericic. That fight is in May so of course, considering how much damage Blaydes took, timing may not line up. But being extremely optimistic here. Gaziev is a 2023 Contender Series veteran that would be 4-2 in the UFC with a victory over Brandon. Shamil is currently coming off a first round stoppage loss to (#4) Waldo Cortes Acosta who also stopped Derrick Lewis in his most recent bout. So that would keep Curtis still in the loop and on track for a potential rematch with Hokit down the line.

Pericic, the other option here, is 6-1 as a pro and 2-0 in the UFC with two first round finishes. Those came against Elisha Ellison and Louie Sutherland. So, Brando would be in a similar position as Hokit headed into UFC 327. Main card of pay per view type of fight, with the winner drawing a descending top 4-8 fighter.

Blaydes’s next fight: (#13) Shamil Gaziev vs. (#NR) Brandon Pericic winner

Johnny Walker

(#10) Dominick Reyes edged out (#12) Johnny Walker in a very bland split decision that saw little output from either fighter. The 2018 Contender Series alum now falls to 8-7 with the UFC and has dropped three of his last four bouts.

Walker should take on Azamat Murzakanov as the fight has huge upside for both guys. However, a decent backup for Walker, if Murzakanov is on the shelf for a while would be Julius Walker vs Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev winner. That fight is scheduled for late June.  Julius would be 2-2 in the UFC if he got the win against Abdul. Currently, his most recent fight was a second round TKO loss to (#14) Dustin Jacoby. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev is a 2025 Contender Series alum that is 2-0 in the UFC. He finished his Contender Series opponent and both guys that he’s faced in the UFC inside of the first round. He’d be 3-0 facing Walker and looking for a ranking. This fight could be on the main card or a co main event of a fight night card.

Walker’s next fight: (#6) Azamat Murzakanov or Julius Walker vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev 

Nate Landwehr

Cub Swanson had the perfect retirement fight as he delivered a clean combination to score a TKO victory over Nate Landwehr in the first round of the UFC 327 main card opener on Saturday. Landwehr now falls below .500 in the UFC, as he’s now 5-6. Nate’s also on a 3-fight skid and has dropped four of his last five, so he’s really struggling.

Straying from a pick on a previous edition of losers matchmaker here, best fight for Landwehr would be to give him Patricio Pitbull. Patrico just fought in the feature prelim of UFC 327 and lost to Aaron Pico via unanimous decision. He’s 38 years old while Landwehr is 37. Similar recovery times even though Nate was stopped. Pitbull is 1-2 since coming over to the UFC from Bellator where he was a former champion. His only win is opposite of Dan Ige who has also fought Landwehr, though Nate lost a unanimous decision.

This would be a true base level litmus test for Patricio and could do some heavy lifting for Nate. Timing would line up great for these guys and it’s a guaranteed good scrap. Could land anywhere, from a co main event of a fight night card to main card of a weaker pay per view potentially. Fight of the Night potential.

Landwehr’s next fight: Patricio Pitbull

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“That was f*cking tight, but that was the thing. These decisions you make in life,” Radtke told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“I think everybody can understand that when you go in there you’re really going to learn if you’re about it or not.”

Radtke (12-5) leaned into the grit required to edge out a hard-fought win over Francisco Prado, embracing the kind of fight that tests a competitor’s resolve as much as their skill. After going through a back-and-forth battle inside the octagon, he made it clear the performance reflected exactly who he believes he is as a fighter.

“The difference between me and a lot of people is I can actually say I’m about that life,” he said.

“I’ll put it on the line, and he would have to put me out cold to get it done, and it was f*cking close. That’s why I’m giving him all the credit in the world. He could easily go out the UFC, and get back in the UFC, and definitely be a world-beater in time to come.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Charles Radtke above.

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For Suarez (12-1) the opening round proved to be one of the few moments of adversity for against Godinez. Suarez admitted she had difficulty finding her timing early before eventually settling into her grappling rhythm.

“The first round I just didn’t see the shot, but then once we actually started wrestling, I took her down,” Suarez told reporters including Cageside Press at her post-fight scrum.

“I was on top for quite a while. Once I knew that I could take her down and hold her there, which I feel like I can do that to many people, everything was easier.”

“I knew that I’d make adjustments, and get her back. I actually told my coach, I said, I don’t know why, but I feel like she’s not good on the back and I think I can get her back and I think I can get her out of there,” she said.

“I felt this very strongly before my fight. No one’s put her there except for Virna (Jandiroba).”

“I guess it just depends on Weili. I heard that she was going back down to 115, but I will gladly go fight Mackenzie Dern for that belt,” she said.

“The UFC makes those decisions. I just go in there and when they tell me this is the time of the day, I show up.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Tatiana Suarez above.

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Gamrot (26-4, 1NC) submitted Esteban Ribovics on the preliminary card at the Kaseya Center on Saturday, and noted that there’s a risk fighting unranked foes.

“This is always a risk, when you take guys without ranking, but I took second time, and second time I showed how the difference is between me and guys without rankings,” stated “Gamer” following the win, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.

Now, he added, “I hope I get somebody from the top, because I deserve this. I’m getting better every time. Only give me a full camp, and then I can fight with everybody.”

Getting unranked opponents is something Gamrot understands, even if he wants to fight up. “I know it’s weird, but I little bit understand this position. UFC has to mix the guys with rankings, and no rankings, this is normal. I understand there’s politics.”

Still, “right now I deserve guys from the top. Maybe BSD [Benoit Saint-Denis], maybe Paddy [Pimblett], maybe Arman [Tsarukyan] again. Doesn’t matter who. I want to fight, I want to prove that I’m the best in the world. Like I said, only full camp, and then I’m ready to rock n’ roll.”

Oddly, Gamrot also called for a fight with Diego Lopes following his win at UFC 327. Lopes, who is fighting at the White House next month, competes at featherweight.

“I know he has booked a fight at the White House against Mexican guy, but I heard like he wants to move to the lightweight division because maybe he won’t get a chance for a title fight [unless] he goes up,” explained Gamrot. “I can wait for him, I am patient, I’m in no rush. Maybe end of the year, I can compete with this guy.”

Gamrot also believes his former foe, Tsarukyan, who he’d like to rematch, should be fighting for lightweight gold. “For sure, he deserves [to fight] for the title. I don’t know why he don’t get the title. Maybe that’s like, a pretty bad reason, but for sure he deserves the title.”

Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Mateusz Gamrot above.

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“I feel great. I feel like I just had a wild night of sex,” Holland (29-15, 1NC) quipped while addressing the media backstage at the Kaseya Center.

Holland had an anaconda choke locked in during the second round, but couldn’t quite finish the submission. “Skinny necks are harder to submit,” Holland suggested, adding that “I should have probably transferred over, I started feeling like I really had it but I should have gone over to guillotine and then took top position and just finished him from top.”

Still, the win over Brown puts Holland back in the win column, and he’s now looking to run a few fights back. “I need my rematches. I need my rematches. I need D-Rod, I didn’t spend all that bail money for no reason, and then I need Mike Malott,” stated Holland. “He gets past Gilbert Burns, then I’d like to fight Mike Malott. If he doesn’t get past Gilbert Burns, then somebody shoot him in the nuts and give me Burns.”

Burns faces Malott in the main event of UFC Winnipeg next Saturday. Rodriguez, until recently, had been AWOL, reportedly in prison in Mexico. He recently returned to social media.

As for where he’d like to fight, Holland seems to enjoy Miami, for one.

“If I could choose, it would always be Vegas-Miami. Vegas-Miami. Vegas-Miami. If I could just do those two for the rest of my career, that would be wonderful.”

Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Kevin Holland above.

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Aaron Pico (14-5) has reason to be excited. After being embarrassed, frankly, in his UFC debut when Lerone Murphy knocked him out, Pico returned to form at UFC 327, notching his first UFC victory and picking up a win over longtime Bellator MMA rival Patricio Pitbull in the process.

Online, Pico’s performance has been called his best ever. In the cage at the Kaseya Center in Miami, he felt things were slow, he told media outlets including Cageside Press.

“I felt everything was slow in there. I felt like my punches were slow. I have to go back and watch it,” Pico stated. “I felt like I was hitting him and blood was coming down his face, I felt like everything was so slow.”

Despite a big win, Pico also admitted that “I have a lot of things to work on. He got up from me, I have to hold him down. But he’s a veteran, how many times was he champion in Bellator? He fought the top guys. I was just the better fighter tonight, but much respect to him.”

Pico’s future now looks bright once again. A lot of match-ups in the featherweight division await. When he first signed with the UFC, Pico was linked to a fight with Movsar Evloev, which never came to fruition. That’s still a possibility.

“I want to fight ranked guys. I hope this puts me in the rankings. I would love to get a rematch with Lerone Murphy, I would love to run that back. There’s Movsar, there’s so many guys in the division, and this is one of the toughest weight classes in the UFC,” noted Pico.

“I was hungry to get a win, but now I’m starving to be a champion. So I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Aaron Pico above.

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Featherweight Swanson (31-14), a longtime fan favorite fighting as a pro since 2004, fought in the WEC, later absorbed into the UFC to bring in the lighter weight classes. He’s a member of the UFC Hall of Fame thanks to his 2016 classic against Doo-Ho Choi. His retirement bout, against Nate Landwehr, came over a year after his win against Billy Quarantillo last time out.

Surprisingly, Swanson looked better than ever at age 42 on Saturday. He came out aggressive, yet picked his sports, piecing up Landwehr perfectly. Multiple knockdowns arrived before all was said and done inside of a round.

Announcing his retirement fight in advance might have led to a slightly more emotional Fight Week than normal for “Killer Cub.” During media day, the soft-spoken fighter even said outright he didn’t want to talk about his retirement anymore.

“I was kind of hitting those normal emotions, but I think sometime yesterday was probably my worst time where I was like ‘man don’t go out there and get beat up.’ So, I just put pressure on myself like always.”

Speaking with media outlets backstage at the Kaseya Center, Swanson noted that “fighting is painful. I’ve been able to have a high threshold of pain for a long time, and be able to ignore it and tell myself ‘you’re good, you’re good.’ But I’m over that part.”

Having accumulated lots of knowledge throughout his career, Swanson added “I’m better off sharing that knowledge with the next generation. I’m 42-years old, sometimes I sit back and like, ‘what are you still doing dude? Get a job, do something else.'”

While some fighters retire and return, retire and return, rinse and repeat, don’t expect to see Cub Swanson return to fighting. His decision, it seems, is a little more final than most.

“Yeah. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. I’ve said this before, when I fought Giga [Chikadze], a good friend of mine by the way now, I struggled about life after fighting and I made myself a promise that I was going to start working on the next chapter of my life. And I’ve been doing that, and I built this amazing fight team, Bloodline Combat Sports. That’s my passion now.”

That, and his family, Swanson added. “I’m pretty content.”

Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Cub Swanson above.

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