{"id":663102,"date":"2026-05-11T03:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663102\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:55:20","slug":"matches-to-make-after-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663102\/","title":{"rendered":"Matches To Make After UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC 328<\/a> went down last night (Sat., May 9, 2026) inside Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., featuring a Middleweight title fight that saw Sean Strickland upset Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> via split decision to reclaim the 185-pound crown (scorecards here<\/a>). In the co-headliner, Flyweight champion, Joshua Van, defeated Tatsuro Taira via fifth round technical knockout in what proved to be a back-and-forth brawl (see it again here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"NEWARK,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MAY 09: Sean Strickland reacts after the UFC middleweight championship fight against Khamzat Chimaev of Russia during the UFC 328 event at Prudential Center on May 09, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Winner: Sean Strickland
Who He Should Face Next: Nassourdine Imavov rematch<\/p>\n

Now that Strickland has sent the Boogeyman back to the closet, the new Middleweight champion of the world has his sights set on a rematch against Imavov, who has more than earned his first-ever shot at the strap. Strickland already has a win over \u201cThe Sniper,\u201d defeating him three years ago via unanimous decision. Imavov is currently on a five-fight win streak and hasn\u2019t tasted defeat since coming up short against \u201cTarzan.\u201d Strickland will take some time to heal his wounds first (like this<\/a>), and then he will attempt to secure his first-ever title defense.<\/p>\n

\"NEWARK,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MAY 09: Joshua Van of Myanmar reacts after a TKO victory against Tatsuro Taira of Japan in the UFC flyweight championship fight during the UFC 328 event at Prudential Center on May 09, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Winner: Joshua Van
Who He Should Face Next: Alexandre Pantoja rematch<\/p>\n

Van successfully defended his 125-pound title for the first time after taking out Taira \u2014 who proved to be tough as nails<\/a> \u2014 and now he, too, has a rematch on the horizon. It was a given that Pantoja would get the next shot regardless of the winner because he lost the strap to Van after a fluke injury<\/a> ended their title fight in the first round at UFC 323<\/a>. Van will now have an opportunity to prove his worth once more with a more convincing win against Pantoja.<\/p>\n

\"NEWARK,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MAY 09: Alexander Volkov of Russia prepares to face Waldo Cortes Acosta of the Dominican Republic in a heavyweight fight during the UFC 328 event at Prudential Center on May 09, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Winner: Alexander Volkov
Who He Should Face Next: Title shot (if he wants to wait)<\/p>\n

Volkov stopped Waldo Cortez-Acosta\u2019s three-fight win streak to move to 6-1 in his last seven fights. He is currently ranked No. 2<\/a>; therefore, he is in good position for a title fight. As it stands, Alex Pereira and Cyril Gane are set to compete for the interim title at Freedom 250<\/a>, with the winner then facing Tom Aspinall for a title unification bout. If Volkov waits for a title shot, he could be on the sideline for a bit. That said, there is no reason for him to take another fight in the interim and potentially ruin his championship dreams. Then again, should Josh Hokit prove victorious against Derrick Lewis \u2014 also at Freedom 250<\/a> \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t be too surprised if UFC matchmakers booked Volkov against \u201cThe Incredible Hok.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEWARK,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MAY 09: Sean Brady punches Joaquin Buckley in a welterweight fight during the UFC 328 event at Prudential Center on May 09, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Winner: Sean Brady
Who He Should Face Next: Wait and see \u2026<\/p>\n

Brady got back into the win column and moved his record to 4-1 in his last five fights after defeating Joaquin Buckley via unanimous decision. Brady is currently ranked No. 6<\/a> at 170 pounds so a fight against Carlos Prates is the only one that makes sense. Belal Muhammad (No. 5<\/a>) is set to tango with Gabriel Bonfim, while Jack Della Maddalena (No. 4<\/a>) is coming off two losses. Michael Morales (No. 3<\/a>) already has a win over Brady, and could be in line for a title eliminator fight against Prates, who is ranked No. 2<\/a>. That only leaves Ian Garry in the Top 5<\/a>, and that fight won\u2019t happen since he is favored to be the one to face division kingpin, Islam Makhachev. That said, all Brady can do is wait to see how the division plays out in the next few months to see what makes sense for him because fighting someone outside of the Top 5<\/a> simply isn\u2019t logical because he is about to break in himself.<\/p>\n

\"NEWARK,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – MAY 09: King Green reacts after a submission victory against Jeremy Stephens in a lightweight fight during the UFC 328 event at Prudential Center on May 09, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Winner: King Green
Who He Should Face Next: Rafa Garcia<\/p>\n

Green improved his win streak to three in a row with an impressive stoppage win over Jeremy Stephens (see it here<\/a>). I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing him battle Garcia, who is also on a three-fight win streak. Garcia is coming off a unanimous derision win against Alexander Hernandez last month, so the turnaround time could sync up for them both.<\/p>\n

\"AlexBehunin\"<\/a>\"MMAFor complete UFC 328 results and play-by-play click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC 328 went down last night (Sat., May 9, 2026) inside Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., featuring a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,266293,1396,179146,6656],"class_list":["post-663102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-328","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}