Jon Anik has offered his thoughts on which UFC title fights could headline the promotion’s final marquee events of 2026, with the middleweight, heavyweight and women’s bantamweight divisions emerging as the most likely candidates.
The UFC has several championship bouts already scheduled for the coming months. The men’s and women’s flyweight titles will be on the line at UFC 331 and UFC 332, respectively, while featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is set to defend his belt against Movsar Evloev at UFC 333 on October 24.
That leaves UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden in November and UFC 335 at T-Mobile Arena in December as the promotion’s final major opportunities to stage title fights before the end of the year.
Speaking on this week’s episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast, Anik considered which championship matchups could fill those spots.
“If you're the UFC, right, there are only so many title fights to go around,” Anik said. “When you look at November and December, right, if you're trying to do two title fights at Madison Square Garden, what are those title fights right now?”
Anik identified women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison as one potential option.
“In terms of the women, Mackenzie Dern just fought... that's 115. (At) 35 Kayla Harrison is your champion, right?” Anik said. “So yeah, Kayla Harrison is one possibility to fight in November or December. So you have one possibility from the women the rest of the way and that’s Harrison.”
The men’s flyweight championship could theoretically remain in the picture depending on the outcome of UFC 331, although Anik acknowledged that a quick turnaround for the winner would be difficult to rule out.
“Among the men (the) 125-pound title’s on the line in nine days so in theory that would be out, although Joshua Van would probably like to fight in December (too) so let's not put that past him, right?” Anik said.
Several other champions appear unlikely to compete during the final two months of the year. The bantamweight and featherweight titles are scheduled to be defended in October, while lightweight champion Justin Gaethje is expected to remain sidelined until 2027.
“135-and-145-pound men are defending their titles in October so they're out,” Anik said. “155-pound champion Justin Gaethje out until 2027. 170-pound champion Islam Makhachev is not going to fight in this November nor December.”
The middleweight division could provide another championship option, with Anik pointing to possible matchups involving Sean Strickland and current champion Khamzat Chimaev.
“Strickland-Imavov, right? Or Strickland-Chimaev… that is one possibility,” Anik said.
However, Anik also raised the possibility of an interim light heavyweight title fight involving Chimaev and Paulo Costa at UFC 332 in Salt Lake City.
“But part of me wonders why we're not getting Chimaev-Costa for an interim light heavyweight title (at UFC 332) in Salt Lake City,” Anik said. “I know Chimaev was wrestling Tyron Woodley this past weekend (at RAF).”
Anik also suggested heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall could potentially return to action before the end of the year, further expanding the list of possible championship fights.
“Anyway, you could get Tom Aspinall in theory,” Anik said. “So that leaves us with middleweight, heavyweight, and women's bantamweight to try to get three title fights the rest of the way unless I'm missing something.”
