UFC 326 might go down in history as the night the BMF belt lost its meaning. This is not a title for which you strategize and execute a near-perfect game plan. This is a title for which you point down to the mat and trade death blows in the last ten seconds, even if you won the 24 minutes and 50 seconds leading up to that. Max Holloway came to repeat history, but Charles Oliveira had other plans – one that left far too many unimpressed, including Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.

Nobody saw this coming—not the experts, the fans, or even the oddsmakers. Despite being labeled a heavy underdog, Charles Oliveira dominantly defeated Max Holloway via unanimous decision to become the BMF champion at UFC 326. Judges scored the fight 50-45, 50-45, 50-45.

Right from the opening round, the Brazilian had a clear game plan—take Holloway to the ground and neutralize his pressure-heavy style. ‘Do Bronx’ executed that strategy to near perfection, securing five of his 13 takedown attempts. He kept Holloway pinned down for long stretches, controlling the action for an impressive 20:49 of the bout.

The two had previously met in 2015, when Max Holloway finished the fight in the first round via knockout. This time, however, he never found the same opportunity. With the win, Oliveira is expected to climb the lightweight rankings and could potentially land one of the biggest fights of his career against former two-division champion Conor McGregor.

Before the fight, ‘The Mac’ had suggested he had a feeling the UFC might match him up with the winner of Holloway vs. Oliveira. Now that the Brazilian has emerged victorious, a clash with McGregor could be on the horizon. McGregor is also not part of the White House event in June, which leaves the door open for a possible return bout against Oliveira in July at the International Fight Week.

However, the Brazilian’s ground-heavy dominance did not sit well with everyone, as many criticized the fight for being overly slow and lacking excitement.

Ryan Garcia joins Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz 

After the final result was read aloud, the entire MMA community flooded social media to share their thoughts. Conor McGregor was among the first to criticize the fight. “DC on Max on top ‘he should stall’ lol,” McGregor wrote on X. “He should have elbowed all the open targets. payback. ‘Stall’ lol f––k off. Shockingly bad fight. Charles is a little Charlie, ahahaha, very bad Charles, very bad. Hang your head bad. Good luck. Don’t crown that belt.”

Meanwhile, Nate Diaz, the man who founded the BMF belt, had similar feelings about the fight. “Boring Mother F—kers,” he posted. His response makes sense if you think about all the BMF fights that have gone down before UFC 326. Jorge Masvidal beat Diaz from pillar to post for a doctor stoppage win in the inaugural bout. Then Justin Gaethje head-kicked Dustin Poirier to revitalize the belt that retired with Masvidal.

Max Holloway knocked out Gaethje at UFC 300 in arguably the greatest UFC finish to date to win the belt. He almost did the same to Poirier last year in the first-ever successful title defense of the belt. But tonight, we have to agree with Diaz. The fight world deemed the contest boring.

For a while, Diaz was being touted as the next opponent for ‘The Mac,’ but that doesn’t appear to be the case either. 

Newly crowned WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia added, “BMF or let’s just roll on the ground the whole time.” He also commented on the announced White House card, claiming he was disappointed because he expected it to feature Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and Alex Pereira. 

Meanwhile, fans weren’t happy either. One user posted: “Was still a really awful fight.” Oliveira now joins Khamzat Chimaev, Islam Makhachev, and others on the list of boring grappling-heavy performances in title fights. 

This user, however, had other ideas. The user wrote, “Call it boring if you want, but Max Holloway looked like an amateur against Charles Oliveira. There are levels to this, and Max is overrated as hell. Don’t ever put him in a title fight again.” He did, however, beat the Brazilian before, and a couple of good bounce-back fights could help him demand a trilogy.

It appears Charles Oliveira may have won the fight, but he couldn’t win over the onlookers. Do you think McGregor, Diaz, Garcia, and others are just casuals, as Joe Rogan said live during the fight? Or do they have a point?