We are just about a week away from UFC 324 and fight fans will rejoice after a long-stretch where there have not been any fights. It’s a major year for the promotion and you can expect some title changes to take place this year.
With that, I wanted to look at every division in the UFC and make a prediction for who I think will be holding the title at the end of this calendar year. In this article, we will be taking a look at welterweight up through the big boys at heavyweight.
Who will be UFC champion?
Welterweight – Shavkat Rakhmonov
Currently the welterweight champion is P4P king Islam Makhachev (28-1). While Makhachev is currently the best in the world, he’s facing a nasty welterweight division full of killers. I’m very curious to see who they put with Makhachev first and sincerely hope it’s not Kamaru Usman (21-4) (No disrespect to the former champion).
The two most compelling challengers to me are undefeated contenders Michael Morales (19-0) and Shavkat Rakhmonov (19-0). Rakhmonov is gearing up to return after missing last year due to a knee injury. Morales has ran through all his competition including starching Sean Brady in the first round recently.
Both of those men are insanely tough challenges for Makhachev because of the well-rounded nature of their skills. That said, I haven’t stopped believing in Shavkat Rakhmonov and that won’t stop this year.
I think he’ll find his way to a title fight and I think he’ll have an extremely close matchup with Makhachev that’ll ultimately see him become UFC welterweight champion.
Middleweight – Khamzat Chimaev
This is going to be one of the easiest ones for me. I firmly believe that Khamzat Chimaev (15-0) is going to remain the middleweight champion for all of 2026. Chimaev is recovering from an injury and we should see him back in either April or May.
When he returns, he’s expected to face Nassourdine Imavov (17-4). Outside of Imavov somehow catching Chimaev perfectly and knocking him out, Imavov has no chance of winning that fight in my opinion. From there, you’re likely looking at Chimaev facing the winner of Anthony Hernandez (15-2) – Sean Strickland (29-7).
Hernandez to me is the most compelling challenger for Chimaev in the entire division. That said, I really believe that Chimaev is just ahead of everyone and whoever they throw in front of him this year will ultimately fall to the champion.
Light Heavyweight – Alex Pereira
Alex Pereira (13-3) regained his light heavyweight title when he ran through and knocked out Magomed Ankalaev (21-2-1) in the first round of their rematch. It was such a devastating win that I don’t see Ankalaev getting a rematch against Pereira this year despite holding a win over the current champion.
While Pereira’s next fight is in flux, the top two contenders are Jiri Prochazka (32-5-1) and Carlos Ulberg (13-1). It seems like we are trending towards those two fighting and Pereira potentially moving up to heavyweight. I think Pereira will fight heavyweight in his next fight whether it’s an interim title fight or the fight against Jon Jones.
With that, I expect Ulberg and Prochazka to fight. I believe that Pereira won’t vacate his title to move up to heavyweight and will ultimately drop back down to 205 to face Ulberg or Prochazka. I don’t see either man beating him and with that, Alex Pereira will still be UFC light heavyweight champion as we enter 2027.
Heavyweight – Ciryl Gane
With heavyweight, I think this is finally the year that Ciryl Gane (13-2) becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion. At the moment, Tom Aspinall (15-3) holds the title but who knows if he will even fight again with the issues he’s apparently dealing with in regards to his eye.
Should everything be fine and he fights again, I would actually favor Ciryl Gane in their rematch. I think his movement and his counter striking will really give Aspinall fits and I think he would actually win that fight.
In terms of the rest of the UFC’s heavyweight division, Waldo Cortes-Acosta (16-2) and Derrick Lewis (29-12) will likely provide the next title or interim title challenger after their fight next weekend. I would honestly favor Gane over both of them as well at the moment. Call me crazy, but I’m going with 2026 being the year of Ciryl Gane.
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