It’s official. Charles Oliveira will defend the BMF title against Diego Lopes in the UFC 335 main event on December 12. The UFC confirmed the full pay-per-view main card during its UFC 334 broadcast, according to BJPenn.com. The belt in question is the one Oliveira took from Max Holloway, so the man who beat Blessed for that strap now has to hand it over to another Brazilian or keep it heading into 2027.
Here’s how the main card stacks up:
- BMF title (lightweight): Charles Oliveira (c) vs. Diego Lopes
- Heavyweight: Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich
- Flyweight: Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson
- Middleweight: Damian Pinas vs. Baisangur Susurkaev
- Bantamweight: Kyler Phillips vs. Ethyn Ewing
Phillips vs. Ewing is the newest piece of the puzzle. Championship Rounds flagged the addition on X shortly after the lineup went public, which rounds the main card out to five fights.
The co-main might be the most interesting storyline on the whole show. Pereira is still hunting his first win at heavyweight after his debut in the division came against Ciryl Gane, and that outing left him with something to prove. Pavlovich is the guy standing in the way. And the timing is loud, because Gane just defended the heavyweight title at UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden by beating Josh Hokit, moving to 15-2. If Pereira wants to work his way back toward that belt, December 12 is where the climb starts.
That same UFC 334 card also gave us Kayla Harrison submitting Amanda Nunes in the women’s bantamweight title co-main, so the promotion is coming off a heavy Saturday night and trying to close 2026 on another one.
Further down the main card, Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson at flyweight adds a familiar name to the middle of the lineup, and Pinas vs. Susurkaev at middleweight gives the card a fight that hardcore fans will circle.
My take: this is the right way to use the BMF belt. That strap was never meant to be a real title, and it works best when it goes to two guys who have zero interest in a careful 25 minutes, and an all-Brazilian headliner for it is about as on-brand as the UFC gets. Oliveira already has the Holloway win attached to that belt, so a loss to Lopes would take the shine off the best version of his late-career run, and a win keeps him as the guy everybody at lightweight has to answer to. Pair that with Pereira trying to save his heavyweight experiment against a puncher like Pavlovich, and you’ve got a December pay-per-view where the top two fights both carry real stakes. That’s a rare thing for a year-end card that could’ve been stuffed with filler. December 12 is the date. I’ll be there with snacks.
