The long wait is finally over for mixed martial arts fans after six consecutive winter weekends without a UFC event to watch.
The UFC’s 2026 schedule kicks off this Saturday with Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett competing for an interim lightweight title in the main event of UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Former men’s bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley returns to action against Song Yadong in the co-main event with the winner hoping to jump the line at 135 pounds and earn a title shot against new champion Petr Yan.
The card took a major hit last week when Kayla Harrison withdrew from her anticipated title defence against Amanada Nunes. The reigning UFC women’s bantamweight champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist underwent surgery on her neck and her bout with Nunes was postponed indefinitely.
Even with Harrison vs. Nunes needing to be rescheduled, UFC 324 still boasts a strong undercard with multiple former UFC champions and recordholders set to compete.
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Fans can watch the official UFC 324 pre-fight press conference on Thursday, Jan. 22 on Sportsnet+ beginning approximately 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, and the UFC 324 ceremonial weigh-in is available to stream Friday, Jan. 23 live on Sportsnet+ beginning approximately 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Aaron Bronsteter and Diana Belbita are in Las Vegas with Sportsnet and will be speaking with fighters throughout the week, while Arden Zwelling will provide on-site coverage for Sportsnet.ca.
One notable difference for UFC fans in 2026 will be the start times for numbered pay-per-view events. Instead of the typical 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT main card start time, the PPV portion of UFC 324 will begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT with preliminary card coverage on Sportsnet+ and Sportsnet 360 starting at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Following the UFC 324 main event, fans can stay tuned to Sportsnet+ for live post-event coverage of fighter press conferences and reaction from UFC president Dana White.
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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.
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Projected UFC 324 bout order (subject to change):
— Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett (five rounds for interim lightweight title)
— Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong
— Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Derrick Lewis
— Natalia Silva vs. Rose Namajunas
— Arnold Allen vs. Jean Silva
— Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
— Ateba Gautier vs. Andrey Pulyaev
— Nikita Krylov vs. Modestas Bukauskas
— Alex Perez vs. Charles Johnson
— Michael Johnson vs. Alexander Hernandez
— Josh Hokit vs. Denzel Freeman
— Ricky Turcios vs. Cameron Smotherman
— Adam Fugitt vs. Ty Miller
Here are some odds and ends to consider ahead of UFC 324…
At this point in his 31-fight career, Gaethje is accustomed to competing for various belts and will attempt to earn the rare distinction of being a two-time interim UFC titleholder when he faces Pimblett. Gaethje previously won an interim belt in 2020 when he battered Tony Ferguson at UFC 249, however he was unable to unify the titles when he lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov later that year.
Gaethje is 0-2 overall in his undisputed UFC title opportunities, also losing to Charles Oliveira in 2022, and is 1-1 in “BMF Title” matchups with a win over Dustin Poirier and a loss to Max Holloway. Gaethje has never gone the distance in a title fight and his only losses in MMA have come against fighters that have won a UFC title.
The reason an interim belt is on the line in the first place is because current champion Ilia Topuria announced he is taking a temporary hiatus as he tends to personal matters.
Gaethje has won three of his past four fights with two of those wins being three-round decisions over Rafael Fiziev. The 37-year-old American has the second-highest significant strike accuracy in UFC lightweight history at 58.8 per cent (Islam Makhachev holds the record at 59.5 per cent) and is seeking his 15th career performance bonus, which would move him into a tie for fourth place all time.
Meanwhile, Pimblett will look to become just the eighth fighter in UFC lightweight history to win at least eight fights in a row. The 31-year-old from Liverpool, England is 7-0 so far in the UFC and about to face the biggest test of his career. Pimblett has only fought once in each of the past three years, taking out veterans Michael Chandler, Bobby “King” Green and Tony Ferguson, however none of those opponents have reached the heights Gaethje has in the UFC.
Five of Pimblett’s seven UFC wins have been finishes and each of those wins earned him a performance bonus. Pimblett can become the fourth English champion in UFC history and the first within the lightweight division. Other English UFC champs: Michael Bisping (middleweight), Leon Edwards (welterweight), and Tom Aspinall (heavyweight).
Referee Marc Goddard gets the main event assignment this weekend, while Mike Bell, Derek Cleary and Sal D’Amato have been named the three judges for Gaethje vs. Pimblett by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Tsarukyan has rooting interest
A key piece of context around the UFC 324 main event matchup is the fact neither Gaethje nor Pimblett are the No. 1-ranked contender in the weight class yet an interim title is at stake. Arman Tsarukyan is the top contender at 155 pounds, and has been for a while, but he is not in the UFC’s good graces for a variety of unmeritocratic reasons and keeps getting passed over for the title shot.
Tsarukyan told Demetrious Johnson this week he’ll be cheering for the more experienced fighter who’s listed as the underdog this week.
“I hope it’s Gaethje because I don’t like Paddy, first of all, so I hope he’s going to knock him out,” Tsarukyan said.
Tsarukyan also said that he’s so confident he can make easy work of Pimblett that he thinks the UFC will try to avoid making that matchup because he doesn’t think it would be competitive.
The UFC’s tentative plan is for the winner of Gaethje vs. Pimblett to face Topuria in a title unification bout later this year when the champ is ready to return to the cage, however for now Tsarukyan and his top contender status continues to linger over the division.
The last time O’Malley wasn’t featured in a main event title fight was back at UFC 280 in 2022 when he won a three-round split decision over Petr Yan in tightly contested bout that earned both men a Fight of the Night bonus. O’Malley used that win over Yan to get a title shot and became 135-pound champion the following year when he finished Aljamain Sterling then defended the title once when he avenged a previous loss to Marlon Vera. “Suga” is coming off back-to-back losses to Merab Dvalishvili — a five-round decision at UFC 306 and a third-round submission at UFC 316 — and getting back in the win column can do a lot more than merely boost his confidence.
Considering his star power combined with the fact he holds a previous win over the current champion, an impressive showing against Yadong in the UFC 324 co-main event could potentially be enough to warrant the UFC putting O’Malley in yet another title fight so soon after his two losses to Dvalishvili.
One more KO/TKO win for O’Malley will tie him with fellow former champion T.J. Dillashaw for the all-time lead in the division with seven. O’Malley is one of nine fighters in the division’s history with at least 1,000 significant strikes landed and has the highest significant strike accuracy in division history at 61.2 per cent. O’Malley’s 6.3 strikes landed per minute ranks fourth best in division history and his 2.88 striking differential is the best rate in the division.
Yadong is also a power puncher and if he can get a KO/TKO win this weekend he’ll tie O’Malley, Rob Font and Marlon Vera for second most in the division’s history. The 28-year-old from China has won three of his past four and his only loss in the past three years was a three-round decision loss to Yan.
Will ‘The Black Beast‘ add to his records?
No fighter in UFC history has as many knockout wins as Derrick Lewis and at almost 41 years old the popular heavyweight still carries that fight-ending power in his hands. Lewis has finished three of his past four opponents and if he can upset No. 5-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 324 he will re-enter the heavyweight title conversation for the first time in almost five years. Lewis is the UFC’s all-time KO/TKO wins leader with 16. Those 16 stoppage wins are good for third-most finishes in UFC history regardless of method or weight class. Lewis is currently three total wins behind Andrei Arlovski for most in UFC heavyweight history. Cortes-Acosta is about to compete for the sixth time in the past 10 months and is coming off back-to-back first-round knockout wins.
The next women’s flyweight title challenger could emerge from this card when Natalia Silva meets former two-time strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. Silva has won seven consecutive bouts in the division, which is tied for the second-longest streak in the division’s history. Silva ranks first all time at 125 pounds in striking differential (2.58) and takedown defence (92.3 per cent). Namajunas has won three of four since moving up from strawweight and has shown a veteran savvy. Her 21:00 average fight time at 125 pounds is the longest of any fighter in the division and her 68.1 per cent striking defence ranks second-best all time.
Namajunas was originally scheduled to face fellow former champ Alexa Grasso but Silva was named an injury replacement in December. The winner of Silva vs. Namajunas will have a valid claim to challenging champion Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight belt later this year.
The main card is set to kick off with an exciting featherweight clash between Arnold Allen and Jean Silva with the winner positioned for another marquee matchup later in the year. Allen only has one win since 2022 but his 11 total victories in the UFC’s featherweight division are tied for sixth-most all time. The English fighter had been contemplating a move up to lightweight but decided to stay at 145 pounds as he returns for his first fight in a year and a half.
Silva is aiming to bounce back from a thrilling, back-and-forth brawl with Diego Lopes. The Brazilian is an all-action fighter whose featherweight bouts last an average of just 6:42, which is the fourth-shortest average fight time in the division’s history. Silva also has the third-best featherweight knockdown rate with 2.24 knockdowns per 15 minutes of fight time.
