The first two major main events announced for the UFC in 2026 have been met with confusion and criticism with Paddy Pimblett getting an interim lightweight title fight against Justin Gaethje, while Diego Lopes landed a rematch with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski less than a year after he lost their first encounter.
‘That’s f*cking ridiculous’: Matt Brown slams Paddy Pimblett getting UFC interim title shot
UFC veteran has issues with other fights at UFC 324, UFC 325 as well
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Damon Martin is a veteran journalist and insider covering combat sports since 2003.
None of the fault falls on the fighters, but while Pimblett is preparing for a title shot, Arman Tsarukyan — currently ranked No. 1 at lightweight by the UFC — is just sitting on the sidelines after openly stating he would be happy to compete again in January after dismantling Dan Hooker in November. Meanwhile at featherweight, undefeated fighters Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy both make compelling arguments for a title shot yet they were ultimately passed over in favor of Lopes.
“It’s kind of sad,” UFC legend Matt Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I hate how I get into this too much, but that’s the definition of a monopoly. Where a single promoter owns the titles and the rankings. It’s not a good thing for the sport, in my opinion. I have to question what it’s going to do for the longevity of the sport.
“I don’t think in the short term, it’s really going to make a big difference. It’s going to sell the next fight. It’s going to sell the next pay-per-view but trends tend to come and go. Fads tend to come and go. At some point to have staying power and lasting power, I think it requires a meritocracy based system.”
Tsarukyan undoubtedly has the best argument for a title shot considering he was booked to face then lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 until a last-second injury knocked him off the card. He finally returned in November where he scored a dominant submission win over Hooker to put himself back in position to fight for gold.
Instead, Pimblett and Gaethje are battling for the interim title with the winner then expected to move on and face reigning UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria. Depending on the timeline for how that all unfolds, Tsarukyan could be looking at 2027 before he potentially gets his own opportunity at the title.
“You’ve got to feel for Arman more than anybody else,” Brown said. “The guy’s done all the right things except for one little mishap, which apparently if you do one little mishap you are screwed. It wasn’t like a big mishap. He got injured. You get injured, you get injured. Boy is it biting him in the ass now, I guess.
“We’ve seen this situation multiple times. It’s like what do you got to do to get a godd*mn title shot? When you’ve earned it, you’ve earned it — you’re the No. 1 guy. Why do they even have rankings anymore? I don’t really know. It just should just have popularity scale. Just get rid of the rankings. They should just list the most followers on Instagram. Here’s who gets the next title shot, he’s got 2 million followers!”
It’s tough to argue against the idea that Pimblett is really jumping the line considering he doesn’t hold a win over anyone currently ranked in the top 10 at lightweight in the UFC. While he remains undefeated in the octagon, Pimblett’s three most recent wins came over opponents with a combined 3-12 record over their past 15 fights.
“We don’t know that much about Paddy Pimblett still, is the biggest issue in the whole thing,” Brown argued. “I just saw a little meme picture on Twitter earlier today and his last three opponents are like 0-9 [recently] or something like that. That’s f*cking ridiculous. He hasn’t beat a guy that’s on a winning streak in his career yet [in the UFC], in his prime on a winning streak, doing well.
“Even with Justin Gaethje, not a knock on him, but he’s on a one-fight winning streak against a guy that came in on 10 days’ notice. Justin Gaethje is clearly a very good fighter. He’s got some really good wins on his record but to add to that, the last guy he beat [Rafael] Fiziev, he already beat him before. He doesn’t have any impressive win streak to be earning a title shot either. What a wild choice of guys to compete for an interim title when you’ve got so many good options out there. Arman is just the obvious one. It’s just ridiculous that he didn’t get the shot. I don’t know what’s going through his head right now. I haven’t heard anything from him but there’s no way he’s not fuming. I mean 2027 — there’s a world where he doesn’t get a title shot until 2027. I feel for the guy.”
As far as Lopes getting a rematch against Volkanovksi and a second title shot in a 10-month span, Brown just doesn’t understand the UFC’s thinking, especially with Evloev and Murphy both waiting in the wings.
An argument could easily be made for either of them getting a title shot right now but instead the UFC went with Lopes after he lost to Volkanovski and then scored a knockout win over Jean Silva back in September.
“I don’t know where this came from,” Brown said about the UFC 325 main event. “Why they are doing that? What the idea behind it is? I really don’t get that one at all. It’s not like we’ve seen something out of Diego in that last fight with Jean Silva where we’re like wow, he should definitely be back at a title shot. He’s the guy! I think he’s an amazing fighter, and he certainly has a shot against Volkanovski, but I don’t think any more of a shot than he did the first fight. I haven’t seen anything spectacularly changed up in his game since the first fight.
“How Movsar has not got a title shot — again, it’s the same situation as Arman. What do you have to do? Oh you have to go on the internet and get famous? That’s not the way this sport is supposed to work. It’s not cool.”
Brown believes it speaks to a much bigger problem plaguing the UFC right now.
“If you want to bring in guys like Arman Tsarukyan or Movsar Evloev, you want to bring in these Olympic wrestling level guys, they don’t want to have to go out there and put on some ridiculous show to become a champion,” Brown said. “They don’t want to have to go on Instagram and start a podcast and make whatever kind of skits on social media and this silly kind of stuff.
“They just want to be a world champion because they want to be the best athlete. That’s what makes me wonder how the staying power is going to be. When you’re dealing with guys who are legitimate athletes, who want to be legitimate athletes, and they’re getting passed up by guys that are entertainers.”
