The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Utah for UFC 332, a
solid enough card badly in need of a main event. The headliner,
which sees Natalia
Silva take on Cong Wang for
the freshly vacant women’s flyweight title, is stretched thin as a
main event, but the rest of the main card makes a lot of sense. Top
bantamweight prospect Payton
Talbott gets his next test against former flyweight champ
Deiveson
Figueiredo, and the rest of this slate is matched for action;
King
Green and Esteban
Ribovics should have a barnburner, knockout artist Roberto
Soldic finally makes his UFC debut, and dynamic middleweight
Ateba
Abega Gautier looks for his biggest win yet against Roman
Kopylov.
UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship
Natalia
Silva (20-5-1) vs. Cong Wang
(10-1)
Odds: Silva (-205), Wang (+170)
Cong Wang challenges Natalia Silva for the vacant UFC women’s
flyweight title
This fight is stretched thin in almost every promotional aspect, as
it doesn’t feel much like a headliner or title fight and might not
even be all that exciting, but it’s at least an intellectually
interesting fight that should tell us something about whoever winds
up as the UFC’s new flyweight champion.
Natalia
Silva’s UFC debut in 2022 was a bit of an afterthought —
especially coming off a two-and-a-half-year layoff — but once she
hit the Octagon, it was quickly apparent that she would be a
problem for most of the division; Jasmine
Jasudavicius was an interesting prospect in her own right, and
Silva made her look absolutely glacial while outmaneuvering her
over three rounds.
Silva has a case as one of the fastest fighters in the UFC relative
to her division, which has made up for some bad process; she
confusingly attempted to wrestle with the much stronger Tereza
Bleda before finding a knockout, and she generally leaves a lot
of defensive openings that could be taken advantage of — provided
someone can actually catch up to her level of speed.
Silva finally clinched her title shot with a January win over
Rose
Namajunas, but that fight might have hurt her stock in the
process; she was still clearly the faster fighter, but Namajunas
was both long enough to hang with her at range and patient enough
not to charge into Silva’s offense. The result was a tepid affair
in which Silva looked reticent to lead against someone who could
control range and cause some damage; that nearly resulted in a
decision loss to Namajunas but also figured to be absolutely
poisonous against the technical mastery of champion Valentina
Shevchenko.
But with Shevchenko becoming the latest UFC champion to vacate her
title, that point is moot for now — though Cong Wang
could still be a tricky opponent. Unlike Silva, Wang was far from
an obvious title contender when this fight was announced, but she’s
an obvious talent with a built-in backstory for a Shevchenko fight
if she wins the belt, as the two have a kickboxing rivalry stemming
from a Wang win shortly before Shevchenko’s 2015 UFC debut. The UFC
picked Wang up in 2024, and she immediately looked like a natural
who figured to be fast-tracked to a title fight, as she kept up an
active schedule before disaster struck; a matchup against Gabriella
Fernandes was clearly going her way until she got stunned with
a counter and choked out on the mat, handing her her first mixed
martial arts defeat in a massive upset.
But “The Joker” has thankfully learned from the loss in terms of
actually respecting what her opponents have to offer, and after a
few performances that were a bit too patient, Wang is now balancing
violence and thoughtfulness as effectively as ever. Even if she’s
being rushed a bit into this title fight, Wang has looked every bit
of a contender in her two 2026 performances; she balanced defensive
wrestling and offensive output masterfully against Eduarda
Moura, then slowly broke down Tracy
Cortez on the feet for three rounds of a one-sided fight.
With the UFC matching Wang against wrestlers in her last few
fights, it’s hard to know exactly how she’ll take on the challenge
of Silva’s speedy striking — though the leg kicks she used to chop
down Cortez should be quite an effective weapon. There’s also the
curiosity around this being each woman’s first five-round fight;
Silva hasn’t seemed to tire herself out with such a movement-heavy
approach, but that’s typically an inefficient style that causes
most fighters to fade in the championship rounds.
It wouldn’t necessarily be a shock if Silva coasts to a win here
through her speed or experience advantages, but Wang seems worth
the flier here; she figures to be steady for five rounds and
understands range well enough that she could frustrate Silva much
like Namajunas did. And while Silva can wrestle a bit, Wang has
shown enough in terms of her initial takedown defense that it
doesn’t stand out as a clear path to victory. It might take her a
while to get the ball rolling in terms of momentum, but the pick is
Wang via decision.
Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims
Bantamweights
Deiveson
Figueiredo (25-7-1) vs. Payton
Talbott (11-1)
Odds: Talbott (-625), Figueiredo (+455)
This isn’t the most tantalizing matchup for Payton
Talbott as he works his way up the bantamweight ladder, but
it’s at least nice to see one of the UFC’s best prospects in action
for his long-overdue first fight of 2026. The hype train quickly
got behind the oddly charismatic Talbott upon his 2023 UFC debut,
though there were some clear issues to be worked out even as he
racked up some dynamic wins; Talbott showed an excellent
understanding of the pace and pressure that wins fights in this era
of mixed martial arts but also had little regard for anything his
opponents threw his way, making his fights a bit tougher than they
needed to be at times.
Still, it was a shock when those worries came home to roost at the
beginning of 2025 against Raoni
Barcelos, who outwrestled Talbott to score one of the year’s
biggest upsets. But if there was any concern that Talbott’s
defensive awareness would become a fatal flaw, it took him all of
five months to correct those issues; Felipe Lima
typically finds a lot of success through his own dogged wrestling
and scrambling, and Talbott shut that entire part of his game down
in a clear decision win.
Talbott’s focus on defensive wrestling against Lima limited his
striking output a bit, but again, Talbott’s next performance saw
him correct any potential issues from his last one; given a big
step up against Henry
Cejudo, Talbott synthesized his wrestling and striking in a
manner that led to a surprising extended beatdown of the former
two-division champ. Talbott seems ready to get thrown into the fire
and given a big fight, and this matchup against former flyweight
champ Deiveson
Figueiredo does somewhat qualify, even if it’s only a half-step
up or so in terms of competition. Along with Cejudo, Figueiredo is
one of the men who helped save the flyweight division; in the
Brazilian’s case, that was thanks to a 2020 “Fighter of the Year”
campaign that saw him win the 125-pound title, rack up three
finishes and then end the year with a draw against Brandon
Moreno that was also one of the best fights of the year.
That was the first of a four-fight series with Moreno that helped
raise the profile of the division and both fighters, even though
neither lasted among the flyweight elite in the long run; Moreno
slowed down a bit after so many brutal and taxing fights, and once
Figueiredo lost their fourth fight, he decided to move up to
bantamweight.
Figueiredo’s game has always been built around his fight-changing
power, often taking a low-output approach that still resulted in
some violent knockouts and submissions whenever “Deus da Guerra”
decided to spring into action. But while Figueiredo is still
clearly a hard hitter at 135 pounds, he’s no longer a one-shot
knockout artist; combined with some waning athleticism, that has
reduced Figueiredo’s margin for error to the point that he now
loses most of his high-level fights.
To his credit, he’s done well to adjust enough to still remain
competitive most of the time, mostly in the form of leaning on some
underrated wrestling to rack up control time — but even that’s part
of his greater issue, which is struggling to keep up with the pace
of modern mixed martial arts now that he can no longer end a fight
in an instant.
That seems particularly poisonous against Talbott, who embodies the
structure of the modern game while also clearly improving from
fight to fight; it might take a bit for the younger prospect to
feel things out, but this should all be one-way traffic once he
starts to build some momentum. The pick is Talbott via second-round
stoppage.
Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims
Lightweights
King
Green (36-17-1, 1 N/C) vs. Esteban
Ribovics (16-3)
Odds: Ribovics (-250), Green (+205)
King
Green’s unexpected resurgence has been one of the best stories
of 2026, though it meets its toughest test here. It seemed for a
good while that Green’s UFC career would be defined by bad luck;
coming over from Strikeforce
in 2013, Green quickly shot up the lightweight ranks before a
series of injuries derailed him for about half a decade — and
making matters worse, judges refused to reward Green’s
counter-heavy style on the scorecards during the few times he was
actually able to make it to the cage.
But Green finally found some consistent health in 2020, which was
perfect timing; the pandemic left the UFC scrambling to fill out
cards, and Green quickly regained his profile by stepping in as
often as possible to win some exciting fights. By the time the UFC
opened back up to crowds, Green was clearly a made man as a fan
favorite, making him a welcome addition to any card for the next
few years.
But it seemed like Green’s UFC 300 win over Jim Miller
would be his last hurrah; next came quick losses to Paddy
Pimblett and Mauricio
Ruffy, and perhaps even more concerning was a flat split
decision win over Lance Gibson in the type of matchup that Green
would have dominated in his prime.
But that’s only made Green’s 2026 run all the nicer to see, as he’s
run through Daniel
Zellhuber, Jeremy
Stephens and Terrance
McKinney, all flawed but dangerous fighters, giving the
40-year-old some surprising momentum into this bout against
Esteban
Ribovics. Argentina’s Ribovics was anonymous until gutting out
a 2024 Fight of the Year contender against Zellhuber, which spurred
the UFC to lean on him as a high-profile action fighter. Top-tier
athletes on the Argentine scene often go untested, and Ribovics has
kept that mindset going even against UFC-level competition;
Ribovics leans on his durability to fight with pressure that can
often be quite artless, going shot for shot in the hopes that he
can land something harder than whatever he eats in return.
So far, that has generally worked, with Ribovics mashing his way
through a lot of wars of attrition while only struggling against
wrestlers, but Green is a fascinating next test; the longtime
veteran can wrestle a bit as needed, but he also stands out as
Ribovics’ slickest opponent to date in terms of evading strikes and
landing some big counters in return.
This could be rough for Ribovics at points, but the lean is still
that his combination of youth and durability can win this in the
long run, particularly whenever Green miscalculates one of his
evasions; the pick is Ribovics via second-round knockout.
Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims
Welterweights
Roberto
Soldic (21-4, 1 N/C) vs. Kalinn
Williams (16-5)
Odds: Soldic (-325), Williams (+260)
It’s better late than never, as Roberto
Soldic makes his long-overdue UFC debut. “Robocop” has long
been one of the best European fighters outside the UFC, making a
name for himself as a two-division champion in Poland’s
KSW; that includes a two-fight series with eventual UFC
middleweight champion Dricus Du
Plessis at welterweight, which saw du Plessis score a knockout
in the first fight, only for Soldic to return the favor six months
later.
After three more years with KSW, Soldic made the jump to One
Championship, where his career stalled out for various reasons;
beyond the typical lack of frequent fights that One offers
nowadays, Soldic’s three fights under its banner included both a no
contest and a surprising knockout loss.
So there is the question of whether the UFC has waited too long to
pick up Soldic, particularly since his approach could be
particularly boom or bust; he’s mostly a kickboxer built around
single strikes, and while he has both technical expertise and a ton
of power, there’s a solid chance he can lose fights that come down
to either durability or output. To that end, Kalinn “Khaos”
Williams makes for a solid first test to see exactly where Soldic
stands, as he could prove to be a sneakily difficult matchup for
the Croatian newcomer. Williams didn’t particularly stand out as a
regional talent ahead of his 2020 UFC debut, but it quickly became
apparent that his knockout power was a standout skill, as he
starched Alex Morono
and Abdul
Razak Alhassan in a combined 57 seconds.
Williams’ approach is fairly basic swing-and-cling fare, so there’s
not a lot to worry about outside of that massive power — but
Williams clearly hits hard enough that he can end the fight after
just one mistake by his opponent. Add in that Williams has proven
shockingly durable, and there’s a ton of risk here for Soldic in
his first UFC showing; this fight is likely to take place entirely
on the feet, and the UFC newcomer is the only one of these two men
who has been knocked out.
But the lean is that Soldic can at least fight this smartly enough
to land the harder shots and stay out of major trouble, even if
this won’t be a major announcement of his arrival; the pick is
Soldic via decision.
Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims
Middleweights
Ateba
Abega Gautier (11-1) vs. Roman
Kopylov (15-5)
Odds: Gautier (-218), Kopylov (+180)
One of the UFC’s top middleweight prospects gets his first big step
up here. Born in Cameroon and training in England, Ateba
Abega Gautier popped as an obvious talent in his 2024 win on
the Contender Series, and the UFC did well to bring him along
slowly; “The Storm” spent his first year under the UFC banner
getting matched up with some of the lower lights of the 185-pound
roster, scoring a series of quick wins accordingly.
But the impressive bit of business was that, even in these short
fights, Gautier typically let the knockout happen in the run of
play rather than chasing the finish, which only came through
further in his first fight of 2026 against Andrey
Pulyaev. The fight was obviously booked as another quick and
brutal Gautier win and nearly wound up as such, but after Pulyaev
survived the early going and started to feel his way into the
fight, Gautier just stayed steady and coasted to a clear decision
without much trouble.
Gautier still obviously needs to add more tools to his bag, as he
ran out of ideas to take out Pulyaev after the early going, but for
someone who could just rely on his horsepower, it was quite nice to
see him stay poised and not run himself into trouble, instead
applying consistent but thoughtful pressure and taking
opportunities as they presented themselves. After similarly taking
his time to build toward a knockout win over Osman Diaz,
Gautier now gets a shot at the fringes of the UFC’s middleweight
rankings against Roman
Kopylov, by far his toughest test to date.
Kopylov was impressive on the Russian circuit as a volume-heavy
striker, which made the rough start to his UFC career particularly
surprising; visa issues and injuries kept him out of action for the
better part of three years, and Kopylov’s few showings made him
look quite underpowered at the UFC level, preventing him from
building toward much success.
But Kopylov eventually learned how to sit down on his punches a
bit, and combined with some more confidence, he was able to turn
things around to quite a surprising degree, winning six of his
seven fights during a run from 2022 to 2025.
Unfortunately, that led to Kopylov being turned back from the top
tiers of middleweight in quite definitive fashion, as he was badly
outgunned by the horsepower of Paulo Costa
and Gregory
Rodrigues — and that seemed to nearly derail Kopylov’s career,
as he looked a bit rough early before rediscovering his nerve and
staging a comeback win against Marco Tulio
this past May.
But even though this is Gautier’s big test, it does feel like
Kopylov is also getting thrown back into the fire a bit, as he once
again faces a much more powerful athlete who should get him moving
backward and into a much less effective performance; the pick is
Gautier via decision.
Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims
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