UFC 326 is in the books now and the event didn’t exactly set anything on fire but it definitely reinstated the fact in our head- Ilia Topuria is a BMF and a pretty cool one.
In the much awaited main event, Charles Oliviera put on a dominating performance against the defending BMF champ, Max Holloway and the result was a 50-45 in favor of the new champ. Max has never looked this helpless for this long a time(only that he was KOed by Ilia). Charles absolutely outclassed him on the ground and Max looked like a fish out of water. DO Bronx really deserved to win that night, in spite of the booing of the casuals at the T-Mobile arena, in the fight capital of the world. The fans thought that a BMF belt doesn’t deserve anything other than a fist fight but the truth is that they always boo the ground game, if a finish is not in sight(technical prowess is considered a lesser skill).
As aforementioned, Charles deserved to win the fight but does he deserve to be the BMF champ? If you look at it in a lazy manner, yeah, pretty much, Max was the BMF champ, he got beat pretty easily by Charles, who by the the manner of a unanimous decision must be the new champ. But should he be?
When looked at objectively, it would be absolutely impossible for me to call either of Charles or Max a BMF champ. Both of them lost pretty convincingly(knock-outs) to the present 155 champ Ilia. Now if you’re going to say that the belt wasn’t on the line when Max fought Ilia, then I would say to-ma-to, tuh-ma-to. Ilia is going to face Justin at the White House and is it possible for him not to put the belt at line? It is impossible, right! A champion has to put whatever belt he has whenever he/she fights next. They can’t just not put the belt on line and by that logic, Ilia should be the BMF champ.
Now if we were to say that since the 155 belt was on the line, and thus, the BMF belt was not on the line, it only means one thing- the absolute death of the BMF belt. How does one go making rules on the spot for a belt, if it isn’t a gimmick belt? If UFC wants the fans to take the BMF title seriously, they must not keep on making different rules for that belt. In my opinion, they should just retire that belt!
In my mind, you can’t have a belt and then fight next without putting that belt on the line(no matter if there is already a title on the line), that’s just plain absurd. I think it would have been better if this belt would have retired with that Diaz-Masvidal fight, but as the things stand, UFC either needs to treat this belt with dignity and not make it gimmicky(like a WWE title) or just make the belt fade away by keeping it out of picture.
