The BMF belt was always a little ridiculous, and that was the whole appeal. It was a gaudy prop for people who fight like their rent is due in cash. Dan Hooker, a man who has made a career out of being exactly that kind of person, now says the prop is broken, and he’s pointing straight at Charles Oliveira.
Speaking with Submission Radio, Hooker was handed the take that the belt is now stupid, and he didn’t push back one inch. “Well, it was cool for a bit and then [Oliveira] kind of made it not cool I think he killed it,” he said. When he was asked if the thing could be revived, he gave the shortest eulogy in combat sports history: “No.”
He’s right. I’d go further and say the UFC handed Oliveira the shovel.
View post on X
The Holloway fight was the moment
Rewind to March and UFC 326. Oliveira beat Max Holloway for the BMF title by unanimous decision, and Bloody Elbow described the performance as decidedly safe. Fans were frustrated, and that frustration makes total sense. You can grind out a smart win in a lot of title fights and nobody blinks. Grinding one out for the belt whose entire job is to reward chaos is like winning a hot dog eating contest by eating one hot dog really politely.
Look at the lineage Oliveira inherited. Jorge Masvidal, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway. Those three made the belt mean something because every one of them would sign the scary fight and then go try to end it. The original concept, per Bloody Elbow, was to honor fighters who might never sniff undisputed gold but who never turn down a violent, entertaining matchup. Oliveira is a former champion with real title-picture gravity. He was never the target demographic, and the Holloway fight proved it.
Then it got weirder. When Oliveira was being floated as an opponent for Arman Tsarukyan, there was talk of retiring the BMF title altogether. Think about that for a second. The belt was so disconnected from what it was supposed to represent that the conversation became whether it should exist at all, while the guy holding it was being discussed for a fight that actually matters in the lightweight rankings.
UFC 335 doesn’t fix anything
Instead of retiring it, the UFC is running it back. Oliveira defends the BMF title against Diego Lopes at UFC 335, a card that also features Alex Pereira. Bloody Elbow’s verdict on Lopes as a BMF challenger was that he barely qualifies, and I don’t see much room to argue. You can’t rescue a novelty belt by stapling it to whichever fight is available. That’s how a cool idea turns into a merch SKU.
This is the part that bugs me most. The BMF title worked because it felt organic, like the fans had voted with their screaming and the promotion just made it official. Once it becomes another strap to slap on a co-main for marketing, it stops being a reward and starts being a sales pitch. Fans can smell the difference. They smelled it in March.
View post on X
Hooker is the guy this belt was built for
Here’s the irony that makes Hooker’s comments land harder. He’s on a three-fight losing streak, and by Bloody Elbow’s own description he’s still more the BMF type than the man holding the title, because he’s known for violence and fights that leave the crowd hoarse. That’s the point of the thing. A guy with a rough recent stretch who you’d still pay to watch is a BMF. A former champ who plays it safe against Holloway is a contender who happens to own a funny belt.
To be fair to Oliveira, nobody has to fight the way the internet wants. Winning is the job, and a decision win over Holloway is a real win. But if you accept the BMF belt, you accept the terms, and the terms are that you bleed for the people. Oliveira took the gold and skipped the fine print.
So does Hooker have a point, or is this a guy on a skid taking shots at someone higher up the ladder? Both can be true, and the second doesn’t cancel the first. When the most BMF-coded fighter in the division looks at the belt and says it’s dead, he’s describing a corpse that a lot of fans already identified.
My fix is simple. If Oliveira beats Lopes at UFC 335, retire it on the spot and let it go out with the lineage intact. If the UFC insists on keeping it alive, give it to somebody like Hooker, who’d defend it in a phone booth. Hooker already answered whether it can be saved. One word, two letters, and I can’t find the flaw in it.
