Oliveira Puts BMF Belt on the Line vs Diego Lopes at UFC 335

The Octagon is back in Las Vegas on December 12, and the top of the UFC 335 card is loaded. Charles Oliveira defends the BMF title in the main event against Diego Lopes, who steps up to 155 pounds for the first time. Oliveira claimed the strap at UFC 326 by hammering Max Holloway over five rounds for a unanimous decision — the 37-11 Brazilian's latest reminder that he's still a problem for anyone in the division.

The co-main is where the gamble lives. Alex Pereira takes his second swing at heavyweight, facing Russian finisher Sergei Pavlovich after dropping his divisional debut to Ciryl Gane by second-round TKO at UFC Freedom 250. Pereira sits at 13-4 with 11 knockouts, and he's now chasing a rebound against the No. 2-ranked contender to drag himself back into the title mix.

Why Lopes Is No Soft Touch

Lopes arrives with a résumé that reads worse than it is. His only two UFC losses came against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev — the man Volkanovski defends against next at UFC 333. Everyone else who shared the cage with Lopes got dealt with. Seven UFC wins, including stoppages of contenders Steve Garcia and Jean Silva, and now he's testing whether that power carries up a weight class against a lightweight legend.

Oliveira's calling card is the ground game — 22 of his career wins come by submission — but the Holloway performance showed he can win rounds standing and controlling. Lopes brings aggression and knockout touch, which is exactly the kind of stylistic clash the BMF belt was invented for.

Pereira's Heavyweight Problem

Pavlovich is a nasty assignment for anyone, let alone a former middleweight and light heavyweight champ feeling his way through a bigger division. He's riding a three-fight win streak with wins over Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and his most recent outing saw him fold Tallison Teixeira in under a minute. The ex-interim title challenger has made a career out of scaring heavyweights early.

For Pereira, the math is simple. Beat the second-ranked contender and the title conversation opens right back up; lose and the heavyweight experiment looks like a misstep. Gane, the man who beat him, is already booked against Josh Hokit at UFC 334, so the champion isn't waiting around. UFC 335 goes down Saturday, December 12 from T-Mobile Arena.