LAS VEGAS — Beginning a new era under a $7.7-billion American broadcast partnership with Paramount+, the UFC did everything it could to make its first numbered event of 2026 as stacked as possible.
Spanish star Ilia Topuria was originally meant to defend his lightweight belt prior to taking a hiatus from the sport to address personal matters. Then, welterweight champion and consensus pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev was asked to compete, but turned it down due to timing.
One of the biggest women’s fights in history — all-time great Amanda Nunes vs. current bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison — was booked before it fell through last week. And legendary Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven was targeted for a UFC debut, according to the man who would have fought him, Derrick Lewis.
It says something about this card’s depth that, despite all the above, there are still four former UFC title holders competing Saturday. Plus, a litany of compelling, high-stakes undercard matchups that stand to make sizable impacts on a variety of divisions.
Here’s a closer look at five of those fights as UFC 324 builds to its main and co-main events, seeking to begin 2026 with a splash.
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Watch UFC 324 on Sportsnet+
Lightweight stars Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett compete for an interim championship on the first UFC card of the year. Watch UFC 324 on Saturday, Jan. 24 with prelim coverage beginning 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, and pay-per-view main card starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Derrick Lewis
These are dire days for UFC’s stale heavyweight division, which has seen its undisputed title contested only four times since the beginning of 2022 (plus a pair of interim title fights dispersed within).
No. 1-ranked Cyril Gane — 3-2-1 over that span — has been in three of those four title fights, while current champion Tom Aspinall has participated in only one. That says one thing about the division’s lack of legitimate contenders and another about how disorganized its title picture has become. Not to mention Aspinall’s currently sidelined following eye surgery, which was necessitated by the traumatic bilateral gouging that saw his October title defence vs. Gane result in a no contest.
The division’s been a mess for half a decade, so blessed be the gift that is Waldo Cortes-Acosta, a 34-year-old Dominican who showed up on the Contender Series in 2022, earned a contract, and proceeded to run off a 9-2 UFC record over the next three years.
Once a Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect, Cortes-Acosta fought five times in 2025 — and he says he’d like to top that with six or seven in 2026 — finishing the year with a pair of performance of the night bonuses following knockouts of Ante Delija and Shamil Gaziev. That only fuelled his surging popularity and shot him all the way up to No. 5 in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings, where he’s now poised to enter the title picture with one more attention-grabbing outing.
“Anything can happen in this sport,” said Cortes Acosta, who will be fighting for a third time in two-and-a-half months on Saturday. “I just want to keep fighting actively. I want the UFC to keep me in mind for everything they can put me in. I don’t care if it’s for a title or not. I just want to fight.”
Standing in his way is Lewis, a fellow fan favourite representing the old guard that has hung around the top of the division thanks to its lack of viable up-and-comers. Two weeks shy of his 41st birthday, Lewis has already come up short in a pair of title shots, one an interim championship fight against — who else? — Gane in 2021. Yet here he is, looking to string together a third consecutive win against a much younger prospect.
“It ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before,” Lewis said of Waldo Acosta, who’s averaging as a minus-300 favourite. “I don’t be seeing what these oddsmakers be seeing whenever they be picking against me. Every time I’m like, ‘What in the hell are they talking about?’ I just watched the same video, the same fights that these people have been watching. And I’m like, ‘Are they really serious betting against me like that?’ So, once again, on Saturday, y’all will see he shouldn’t have no business in the cage with me.”
Arnold Allen vs. Jean Silva
It’s been nearly three years since Arnold Allen’s entertaining prospect rise was suddenly derailed in competitive losses to Max Holloway and Movsar Evloev, triggering a difficult period of inactivity and uncertainty for the Englishman who once seemed destined for a title shot.
There’s no shame in losing to either of those two elite featherweights — one a future hall-of-famer and the other an extremely skilled grappler who’s undefeated in 19 professional fights. But the setbacks left plenty of uncertainty as to Allen’s next steps, and even after a unanimous decision victory over the experienced Giga Chikadze in July 2024, the 31-year-old sat out all of 2025 following shoulder surgery and teased a potential move up to lightweight.
But what’s materialized instead is a sleeper contender for UFC 324’s fight of the night, as Allen chose to remain at 145 pounds. To take on Brazilian highlight machine Jean Silva, a Fighting Nerds product allergic to uneventful performances.
Silva’s violent explosiveness and reckless abandon make for a fascinating matchup against Allen’s technical skill and tactical selectivity. And the stakes are massive as an assertive victory from either fighter would shoot them up into an extremely competitive top five along with Evloev, the undefeated Lerone Murphy and Diego Lopes, who’s challenging Alexander Volkanovski for the 145-pound belt next Saturday.
Will this fight put Allen back on track for the title shot that seemed inevitable three years ago? Or will the endlessly creative Silva craft another highlight, reaffirming himself as one of the sport’s most vicious finishers following a setback loss to Lopes in September? As far as matchmaking goes, this is as good as it gets.
“I’m loving it, to be honest — I’m so happy to be back,” Allen said. “There were moments where I was — maybe it’s just me being an idiot — but thinking it wasn’t going to come. Every time I get back to training, there’s a little setback, a little setback, a little setback. Surgeons passing me around, this and that, blah blah blah. But everything’s been good. I’m here — touch wood — and I’m grateful to be doing what I love, doing what I’ve worked for since I was like 12 years old. This is my dream. It’s not just my job.”
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Natalia Silva vs. Rose Namajunas
As we await the next move for flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko following her November dismantling of Weili Zhang in a rare, cross-division women’s super-fight, a 125-pound mini-tournament has formed as the division sorts itself out beneath her.
Alexa Grasso was originally booked to fight two-time former flyweight champion Rose Namajunas on this card, but had to drop out, clearing the way for surging prospect Natalia Silva to step in. Meanwhile, Grasso was booked into a March date with Maycee Barber. Someone from this group ought to be next for Shevchenko. And all indications are that, with a win, Namajunas would have the inside track.
“Yeah, it’s just super exciting and all the more motivating,” Namajunas said. “I’m not too worried about it. You definitely can’t be looking past this or anything. One step at a time. But it’s definitely more motivating.”
For Namajunas, the two-time former strawweight champ, who’s sputtered to a 3-2 record since moving up to 125 pounds, that would represent a fascinating second life in the sport after she was a fixture of most marquee 115-pound fights for over half a decade. When Namajunas won her first UFC title, Silva was still fighting on the regional circuit in Brazil.
Yet for Silva, a victory would give her 14 in a row — eight in the UFC — plus a strong argument for being elevated straight into a title fight herself. Erin Blanchfield may have something to say about that. But if Silva can come away from this short-notice fight with a victory, she’ll have as impressive a resume as any woman in the promotion yet to fight for a title. And her championship opportunity may not be far behind.
“The numbers speak for themselves. We’re talking about seven wins in the UFC, two of them for bonuses. I’ve had great performances against a lot of fighters,” Silva says. “The results are there. A win against Rose on Saturday gives me the credentials to fight for the title.”
Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
We learned a lot about Nurmagomedov in 2025. First, that his previously flawless game had some fatal deficiencies, which were exposed by Merab Dvalishvili over five laborious rounds in a bantamweight title fight at UFC 311. But then that Nurmagomedov could address them and adjust back, as he proved with a convincing October victory — 30-27 on all three scorecards — over Mario Bautista, who’d won eight straight and is not easy to look good against.
Nurmagomedov controlled Bautista — a jiu-jitsu black belt and submission specialist — on the ground for over two-thirds of the fight while out-striking him on the feet, reestablishing himself as one of a stacked division’s most well-rounded threats.
Now, he gets Deiveson Figueiredo, another accomplished grappler with powerful Muay Thai on the feet. Nurmagomedov’s a fresh matchup for 135’s new champion, Petr Yan. And a statement performance Saturday against a name-brand opponent — particularly if coupled with a Song Yadong victory over Sean O’Malley — could vault Khabib’s cousin right back into a title shot.
“For me, it doesn’t matter,” Nurmagomedov says. “Any option, I’m going to be ready.”
Nurmagomedov’s entering as an overwhelming betting favourite — as high as -1,600 in some places — yet no one should count out Figueiredo, who will be fighting for his career. At 38, and with recent losses to Yan and Cory Sandhagen on his resume, the former flyweight champion can’t afford to drop this fight. If he does, retirement may beckon. He’ll be throwing everything he has at Nurmagomedov — a dangerous proposition considering Figueiredo has as much power as anyone in the division.
Ateba Gautier vs. Andrey Pulyaev
It’s hard to say what’s scarier about Gautier — that seven of his nine professional wins have come via first-round knockout or that, at 23, he’s still several years shy of entering his athletic prime.
The Cameroonian has been rag-dolling opponents since entering the UFC off the Contender Series in late 2024, racking up a trio of violent finishes that established him as one of the most dangerous prospects in the sport. And he’s still far from a finished product, entering his sixth year as a professional with an abundance of untapped potential.
It’s among the reasons he’s a massive favourite this Saturday — ranging from minus-800 to minus-1,000 — against Russian southpaw Andrey Pulyaev, who scored a nasty body-kick-to-ground-and-pound victory over Nick Klein his last time out. Long-armed and 6-foot-4, Pulyaev is one of the few middleweights who can come close to matching Gautier’s size and physicality. But it’s possible Gautier’s without equal in the division when it comes to fight-changing power.
The UFC has built Gautier deliberately to this point, feeding him similarly inexperienced promotional newcomers and resisting the urge to thrust him into higher-profile fights. But if he can find another showstopping finish against Pulyaev, it’ll be hard to deny Gautier a much stiffer challenge his next time out. And if he stays as active as he was last year, continuing to demonstrate tactical and technical improvements along the way, it’s a good bet we’re talking about Gautier a year from now as UFC’s breakout fighter of 2026.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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