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Brett Okamoto
Happy New Year, everyone! Before we dive into 10 fights I would like to see in 2026, let’s take a look back on how we did in 2025.
All told, the sport came through on five of the 12 matchups I asked for in 2025. Candidly, we missed a few of the bigger ones. My top two hopes were Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall and Jones or Aspinall vs. Alex Pereira. None of those options were booked. Instead of a Jones-Aspinall heavyweight title unification bout, we got a secondhand Jones retirement announcement from Dana White in Baku, Azerbaijan, which still feels strange to think back on.
Five out of 12 still isn’t bad, and I’m optimistic more than half of the matchups on this list will be produced this year. Let’s get to it.
1. Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria, welterweight
This is a controversial top pick, even in my own head. On the one hand, I don’t like this fight for several reasons: Both fighters moved up in weight in 2025 (Makhachev from lightweight to welterweight and Topuria from featherweight to lightweight), and both have deserving challengers in their respective divisions. And if they were to fight at the 170-pound welterweight limit, Makhachev would have a distinct advantage.
But if I close my eyes and truly ask myself which two fighters I would be most excited to see walking out of the tunnel to face one another, it’s these two. Topuria and Makhachev stand alone at the pinnacle of MMA right now. It’s an imperfect fight, but pound-for-pound No. 1 vs. No. 2? Topuria’s confidence, momentum and finishing ability vs. Makhachev’s dominance and Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner? That has to be the No. 1 fight to book in 2026.
2. Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry, welterweight
Can you tell I’m a bit high on Makhachev? The way he overwhelmed Jack Della Maddalena to become a two-division champion at UFC 322 in New York is possibly the most impressive thing to happen in 2025. I am all in on Makhachev at 170 pounds. I want to see him fight every single welterweight challenger, and he has said he plans to.
Machado Garry is the most intriguing of those challengers, but for the record, I don’t mind a potential Makhachev vs. Kamaru Usman matchup first. Usman is getting older. If the UFC is ever going to make that fight, it makes sense to do it now. Usman is a legend, and Makhachev wants to fight him. Having said that, I would be most intrigued, stylistically, by Makhachev vs. Machado Garry in 2026.
3. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Jiří Procházka, light heavyweight
I’m going to get myself in trouble with the dedicated MMA fan base here, because we’re only three fights into this list, and now I’m calling for a champion with no registered title defenses to move up a weight class.
Here’s the reality of Chimaev: He won’t be a champion who defends his title for years to come. I’d love to see it, and if he wanted his legacy to be that of a long-term champion, we’d all be up for it. But based on conversations with Chimaev in 2025, that’s not happening. He doesn’t love the MMA grind like he used to. He’s not going to be the 2026 version of Merab Dvalishvili, who attempted to defend the belt four times last year. Chimaev wants to move up in search of the biggest fight possible, and ultimately, his days in this sport could be numbered.
It would be phenomenal to see Chimaev challenge 205-pound champion Pereira for his belt, but Pereira has other plans. Depending on how things go, Chimaev vs. Pereira could make this list next year, but for 2026, it’s more likely Pereira moves up to heavyweight, which makes Chimaev’s biggest fight at light heavyweight against Procházka.
From the prefight buildup to the Octagon, this is the kind of fight that isn’t being talked about yet but would turn into one of the biggest fights of the year once booked.
4. Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira, heavyweight
It actually pains me to include this. I was not in favor of how Jones handled his inactive heavyweight title reign and drawn-out retirement saga, only to reenter the UFC testing pool days later. He should have fought Aspinall in 2025. Period. And if he never intended to fight Aspinall, he shouldn’t have wasted everyone’s time and should have vacated the belt immediately.
That said, the time to argue in favor of Aspinall vs. Jones has passed. Aspinall needs to face Ciryl Gane in an immediate rematch of their UFC 321 bout that ended in a no-contest because of a first-round eye poke. But Aspinall recently announced he has plans to undergo multiple eye surgeries this month, and no timetable for his return to competition has been given.
Jones is no longer the champion, thus no longer holding up the division, so there’s nothing really standing in the way of a superfight between him and Pereira anymore. Jones should not be rewarded with the fight he wants in 2026 after what he did (and didn’t do) in 2025, but Pereira also wants this fight, and he deserves it.
5. Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane, heavyweight
While we’re on the heavyweight division, let’s roll right into this rematch. I could make a case for this at No. 1. Stylistically, it’s one of the best title fight matchups the UFC has. We saw that in October, when Gane was having success pressuring Aspinall in the opening round before the now infamous eye poke. We know these fighters can put on a compelling, entertaining fight. Now, we have drama to add to it.
Aspinall is not a natural trash talker, so it takes a lot for him to be publicly shaming Gane for what he believes was an intentional eye poke. There is now real animosity and a psychological element for Aspinall to overcome here. He went from being on top of the heavyweight world, expected to win within seconds, to shouldering outside doubt about his dominance and his courage to compete. He has something to prove again, making this one of the most anticipated fights of the year.
6. Carlos Prates vs. Michael ‘Venom’ Page, welterweight
This might feel out of left field to some, but I’ve been calling for this matchup since August, when Prates knocked out Geoff Neal and Page beat Jared Cannonier at UFC 319.
Prates might be the most exciting fighter in the sport right now. Will he fight for a title? Probably. Is his title quest the most interesting thing about him? No. My interest in Prates is not based on him winning a championship. I just love watching this man fight, and I can say the same about Page. Page’s style is unorthodox, and I’ll admit, sometimes it looks a little clunky because it makes his opponents conservative, but it’s a chess, not checkers, style. It’s smart and it’s clean.
Prates is a master at controlling distance, utilizing different weapons at different ranges. Page is a master of never allowing his opponent to know what range he’s in. I would love to see it as a nontitle, five-round main event.
7. Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes, bantamweight
The story of this fight began nearly 10 years ago, when Harrison made her transition to MMA from judo. Out of all the MMA gyms in the world, Harrison just so happened to land in the same gym — American Top Team — as two-division champion and then-future Hall of Famer Nunes. Harrison’s presence and success in MMA are what Nunes said led to her eventually leaving the team during the latter part of her career. And now, Nunes will come out of retirement at UFC 324 on Jan. 24 to challenge Harrison for the women’s bantamweight belt she relinquished when she retired in 2023.
What a story, and what a matchup in general. Nunes always had such an early, first-round killer instinct. Will she still have that at 37 years old and two years removed from competition? If she does, how will Harrison hold up under that kind of firepower? It’s a great fight to kick off the year in women’s MMA and the sport as a whole.
8. Ilia Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan, lightweight
See? It’s not all superfights on this list. If there is one fight that should happen over any other in 2026, it’s this one. Topuria has the UFC’s lightweight belt but is taking time away from competition to begin the year, so Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett are fighting for an interim lightweight title at UFC 324.
But if you were to ask me who the best, most proven lightweight in the world right now is, I would tell you it’s Tsarukyan.
Tsarukyan deserves to be fighting for a UFC championship, and I’d guess he would be favored by oddsmakers to defeat Topuria in a five-round match. If this sport cares about rankings at all anymore, Tsarukyan needs to fight for the undisputed lightweight belt in 2026. And I believe he will.
9. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev, featherweight
Like Tsarukyan at lightweight, Evloev needs to be fighting for a UFC title in 2026. He didn’t manage a single appearance in 2025, so it’s hard to campaign for him too aggressively, but what else does he need to prove? He’s 9-0 in the UFC, including a 2023 win over Diego Lopes, who is getting his second title opportunity against Volkanovski in 10 months at UFC 325 on Jan. 31.
Is Evloev the most exciting figure on the mic or in the Octagon? No, he is not. But he is undeniably great. There is one thing that has proven to be a home run in MMA over the past several years: Volkanovski chasing greatness. Volkanovski is constantly welcoming the toughest opponents, and Evloev is his biggest challenge out there now. Volkanovski wants Evloev, and frankly, whatever Volk wants, I want.
10. Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira, men’s flyweight
It was unfortunate that Van’s title win came as a result of an injury to Alexandre Pantoja, and we’ll eventually need to see Pantoja back in a championship fight, but in the meantime, Van vs.Taira is a fantastic matchup for the men’s flyweight division.
Van is 24 years old; Taira is 25. It is extremely rare for fighters this young to establish themselves at the highest level the way these two did in 2025. Van looked right at home against veterans with far more top-level experience. And the way Taira broke down two-time former champion Brandon Moreno at UFC 323 showed me beyond any doubt that he is title-ready.
You can’t describe either fighter as less than a phenom, and now they’ve simultaneously proven themselves at the top. With all the respect to Pantoja, this would be my most-anticipated flyweight title fight in a long time.
