There were 21 UFC events during the first six months of 2026.
Fight fans witnessed more than 250 total fights with 80 knockout or technical knockout finishes, plus 45 submissions and four new champions get crowned so far this year.
What might the next six months have in store?
The second half of the UFC’s 2026 schedule begins the second week of July with the organization’s annual International Fight Week taking place Las Vegas leading up to a stacked UFC 329 card but we’ve got a bit of down time before then.
With that in mind, here are a handful of pressing questions facing the UFC that’ll be regular talking points over the remainder of the year.
Can and will Conor McGregor return to form?
If the Irish superstar can pull off a clean upset victory over Max Holloway — no controversies, no injuries, no drug screening infractions — in the upcoming UFC 329 main event then that could mean the biggest star in the sport’s history will be back in business… at least in theory. McGregor is nearing the end of his current UFC contract, and it is entirely common in professional sports to see the business side of things interfere with the competition aspect. There’s no shortage of variables and asterisks attached to McGregor’s return but the fact he has remained a relevant figure in MMA despite being away from the sport for five years speaks to his immense impact on the sport and entire industry.
McGregor is an underdog against Holloway but if he can earn his first win since a 40-second TKO of Donald Cerrone six-and-a-half years ago, it would set up McGregor for a superfight. Anyone from Justin Gaethje to Islam Makhachev to Ilia Topuria would be on the table for “The Notorious” and any such matchup would be extraordinarily profitable for the UFC.
On the other hand, if McGregor looks washed or his broken leg isn’t the same and the result versus Holloway mirrors his two 2021 losses to Dustin Poirier, both of which ended brutally for McGregor, then it could be a clear sign that the McGregor era is officially over and the magic cannot be restored.
Will business pick up on the women’s side?
Believe it or not, there wasn’t a single women’s UFC title fight in the first half of the year. In fact, there also weren’t any main events featuring female athletes in the UFC. The most recent women’s championship bout was last October when Mackenzie Dern beat Virna Jandiroba to win the strawweight title that had been vacated by Zhang Weili months earlier.
The first women’s title fight of 2026 is scheduled for UFC 330 on Aug. 15 with Dern slated for her first 115-pound defence against Canadian-born Gillian Robertson. It’s the only women’s title fight with a confirmed date.
Longtime flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko is coming off a dominant decision win over Zhang, who failed in her attempt to become a two-weight champion, but Shevchenko doesn’t have her next opponent lined up. The future Hall of Famer also doesn’t have much else to accomplish at 125 pounds or in the sport in general besides potentially moving back up to 135 pounds to pursue the bantamweight title before she retires.
Kayla Harrison won the bantamweight title more than 12 months ago but hasn’t defended it yet. The two-time Olympic gold medallist judoka is recovering from a serious neck injury that required surgical repair and she is expected to welcome former two-weight champion Amanda Nunes back to the sport but a date for their anticipated showdown hasn’t been finalized.
Last year provided a handful of memorable championship moments on the women’s side of the roster and it’s a shame we haven’t had anything close to one in 2026. Hopefully we get several over the next six months.
What about the Canadians?
It’s unclear just yet whether the UFC will return to Canada for a second event in 2026 that would join April’s UFC Winnipeg card, but the next six months could be significant for Canadian MMA regardless.
Robertson is fighting for a title in mid-August and she’ll attempt to become the first Canadian woman to win a UFC belt. The last time a Canadian-born fighter challenged for UFC gold was six years ago when Felicia Spencer went the distance with Amanda Nunes in the now-defunct UFC women’s featherweight division. Robertson can join Carlos Newton and Georges St-Pierre as the only Canadian-born UFC champions if she can pull it off. Jasmine Jasudavicius of Niagara Falls, Ont., is also set for a big matchup on that UFC 330 card as she faces Erin Blanchfield.
Mike Malott is arguably Canada’s biggest MMA star at the moment and is in line for a big matchup with a fellow ranked contender after he looked sharp in his first UFC main event opposite Gilbert Burns in Winnipeg. Charles Jourdain was also victorious on that Winnipeg card and he has been rolling since moving down to the bantamweight division. Also at 135 pounds, Aiemann Zahabi will look to rebound from his UFC Freedom 250 loss to Sean O’Malley. Zahabi signed a new contract ahead of that matchup and he’ll remain a tough out in the stacked division.
How will all the heavyweight title drama shake out?
To say the UFC’s heavyweight division has been chaotic this decade would be a colossal understatement. The belt has always bounced around within the organization’s biggest weight class with regularity but the division has lacked order altogether for more than five years running.
Sometimes it was due to contract disputes and other times injury, but overall since 2021 there have been three undisputed heavyweight champions — Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall — yet none of those three champions ever fought each other. Ngannou hasn’t been in the UFC since 2022 and Jones is retired but regularly teases a comeback.
During this time, the UFC also introduced an interim title on multiple occasions and Ciryl Gane has emerged as a two-time interim champion. Gane, who ironically has fought Ngannou, Jones and Aspinall once each, won his second interim belt recently at UFC Freedom 250 when he defeated former middleweight and light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Gane’s win over Pereira has been labelled controversial by many since there were several illegal strikes landed during the finishing sequence that Pereira has since complained about publicly. On top of that, in his previous bout, Gane fought to a no-contest when he fouled current champion Aspinall with multiple eye pokes during their UFC 321 main event last October.
Aspinall, following multiple eye surgeries, has finally been cleared to resume training so in theory an Aspinall vs. Gane rematch could be booked before the end of the year. Pereira will need more time to recover from the damage he sustained courtesy of Gane but “Poatan” also has a future rematch with Gane in his sights.
Between all the drama revolving around the title, plus the rise of polarizing newcomer Josh Hokit and the anticipated debut of Olympic gold medallist wrestler Gable Steveson, the intrigue in the heavyweight division is ramping up and it could result in a dramatic conclusion to the year.
