Happy New Year to all combat sports fanatics! Before we dive into the 10 fights we’d like to see in 2026, let’s review what 2025 left us. In total, the sport fulfilled five of the 12 matchups requested in 2025. Honestly, we missed some of the most important ones. My two biggest hopes were Jon Jones against Tom Aspinall and Jones or Aspinall against Alex Pereira. Neither of those options materialized. Instead of a heavyweight title unification between Jones and Aspinall, we got a retirement announcement from Jones by Dana White in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is still strange to remember. Five out of 12 isn’t bad, and I’m optimistic that more than half of the clashes on this list will happen this year. Let’s go.
1. Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria, welterweight
This is a controversial choice, even in my own opinion. 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 contenders in their respective divisions. And if they were to fight at the welterweight limit of 170 pounds, Makhachev would have a clear advantage.But if I close my eyes and sincerely ask myself which two fighters excite me the most to see come out of the tunnel to face each other, it’s these two. Topuria and Makhachev are alone at the top of the MMA right now. It’s an imperfect fight, but the number 1 against the number 2 pound for pound? Topuria’s confidence, momentum, and finishing ability against Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s dominance in his corner? That has to be the number 1 fight to schedule in 2026.
2. Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry, welterweight
¿Do you notice that I have a lot of faith in Makhachev? The way he overcame Jack Della Maddalena to become a two-division champion at UFC 322 in New York is possibly the most impressive thing that has happened in 2025. I bet everything on Makhachev at 170 pounds. I want to see him fight against each and every welterweight contender, and he has said that he plans to do so.
Machado Garry is the most intriguing of those contenders, but for the record, I wouldn’t mind a possible matchup between Makhachev and Kamaru Usman first. Usman is getting older. If the UFC is going to make that fight, it makes sense to do it now. Usman is a legend, and Makhachev wants to fight him. That said, I would be more intrigued, stylistically, by Makhachev against Machado Garry in 2026.3. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Jiří Procházka, Light Heavyweight
¿Is a move up to light heavyweight next on Khamzat Chimaev’s MMA to-do list, despite not having defended his middleweight title?
Here’s the reality of Chimaev: He won’t be a champion defending his title in the coming years. I’d love to see it, and if he wanted his legacy to be that of a long-term champion, we’d all agree. But based on conversations with Chimaev in 2025, that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t love the hard work of MMA like he used to. He won’t be the 2026 version of Merab Dvalishvili, who tried to defend the belt four times last year. Chimaev wants to move up in search of the biggest possible fight, and ultimately, his days in this sport could be numbered. It would be phenomenal to see Chimaev challenge the 205-pound champion, Pereira, for his belt, but Pereira has other plans. Depending on how things go, Chimaev vs. Pereira could appear on this list next year, but by 2026, it’s more likely that Pereira will move up to heavyweight, making Chimaev’s biggest fight at light heavyweight against Procházka. From the pre-fight preparation to the Octagon, this is the kind of fight that is not yet talked about, but that would become one of the most important fights of the year once scheduled.4. Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira, Heavyweight
I really hate to include this. I wasn’t in favor of how Jones handled his inactive heavyweight title reign and his prolonged retirement saga, only to re-enter 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 being said, the time to argue for Aspinall vs. Jones has passed. Aspinall needs to face Ciryl Gane in an immediate rematch of their fight at UFC 321 that ended in a no-contest due to an eye poke in the first round. But Aspinall recently announced that he plans to undergo multiple eye surgeries this month, and no timeline has been given for his return to competition. Jones is no longer the champion, so he no longer holds the division, so there’s really nothing stopping a superfight between him and Pereira. Jones shouldn’t be rewarded with the fight he wants in 2026 after what he did (and didn’t do) in 2025, but Pereira wants this fight too, and he deserves it.5. Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane, Heavyweight
While we’re in the heavyweight division, let’s go straight to this rematch. I could argue this is number 1. Stylistically, it’s one of the best championship matchups the UFC has. We saw it in October, when Gane was successful in pressuring Aspinall in the first round before the now infamous eye poke. We know these fighters can deliver a compelling and entertaining fight. Now, we have drama to add.
Aspinall is not a natural talker, so he finds it very difficult to publicly shame Gane for what he believes was an intentional eye poke. Now there is real animosity and a psychological element that Aspinall must overcome here. He went from being on top of the heavyweight world, expecting to win in a matter of seconds, to assuming external doubt about his dominance and his courage to compete. He has something to prove again, which makes this one of the most anticipated fights of the year.6. Carlos Prates vs. Michael ‘Venom’ Page, welterweight
This might come as a surprise to some, but I’ve been calling for this matchup since August, when Prates knocked out Geoff Neal and Page defeated Jared Cannonier at UFC 319. Prates could 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 isn’t based on him winning a championship. I love watching this man fight, and I can say the same about Page. Page’s style is unorthodox, and I admit, sometimes he looks a bit clumsy because he makes his opponents conservative, but it’s a chess style, not checkers. It’s smart and clean. Prates is a master of distance control, using different weapons at different ranges. Page is a master at never letting his opponent know what range he’s at. I’d love to see it as a five-round main event without a title.7. Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes, bantamweight
The story of this fight began almost 10 years ago, when Harrison made her transition to MMA from judo. Of all the MMA gyms in the world, Harrison simply landed at the same gym, American Top Team, as the two-division champion and future Hall of Famer, Nunes. Harrison’s presence and success in MMA is what Nunes said led her to finally leave the team during the latter part of her career. And now, Nunes will come out of retirement at UFC 324 on January 24 to challenge Harrison for the women’s bantamweight belt she left when she retired in 2023. What a story, and what a matchup in general. Nunes always had such a killer instinct so early, in the first round. Will she still have it at 37 and two years out of competition? If she does, how will Harrison hold up under that kind of firepower? It’s a great fight to start the year in women’s MMA and in the sport in general.8. Ilia Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan, Lightweight
Do you see it? Not everything is super fights on this list. If there’s a fight that should happen above all others in 2026, it’s this one. Topuria holds the UFC lightweight belt, but he’s taking some time off from competition to start the year, so Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett are fighting for an interim lightweight title at UFC 324.
But if they asked me who is the best and most proven lightweight in the world right now, I would tell them it’s Tsarukyan.Tsarukyan deserves to fight for a UFC championship, and I suppose the bookmakers would favor him to defeat Topuria in a five-round fight. If this sport cares about rankings, Tsarukyan needs to fight for the undisputed lightweight belt in 2026. And I think he will.
9. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev, Featherweight
Like Tsarukyan in lightweight, Evloev needs to fight for a UFC title in 2026. He didn’t make a single appearance in 2025, so it’s difficult to campaign for him too aggressively, but what more does he need to prove? He has a 9-0 record in the UFC, including a 2023 victory over Diego Lopes, who is getting his second title shot against Volkanovski in 10 months at UFC 325 on January 31st.Is Evloev the most exciting figure on the microphone or in the Octagon? No, he is not. But he is undeniably great. There is one thing that has proven to be a resounding success in MMA in recent years: Volkanovski chasing greatness. Volkanovski constantly welcomes the toughest opponents, and Evloev is his biggest challenge right now. Volkanovski wants Evloev, and frankly, whatever Volk wants, I want it.
