Dana White and the UFC didn't have the top MMA event of the day on Saturday, May 16, but they did drop the biggest news of the day. White took to Instagram Live to announce the return of Conor McGregor as the MMA icon will be headlining the UFC 329 show on International Fight Week in Las Vegas.

White gave us the entire main card.

https://x.com/ufc/status/2055872718013432121

• Event: UFC 329
• Date: Saturday, July 11, 2026 (International Fight Week)
• Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
• Broadcast: Paramount+ PPV
• Main Event: Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2 (welterweight, 5 rounds)
• Co-Main Event: Benoit Saint-Denis vs. Paddy Pimblett (lightweight)
• Bantamweight: Cory Sandhagen vs. Mario Bautista
• Flyweight: Brandon Royval vs. Lone'er Kavanaugh
• Heavyweight (Main Card Opener): Gable Steveson vs. Elisha Ellison (Steveson's UFC debut)
• Prelims Headliner: Robert Whittaker vs. Nikita Krylov (Whittaker's light heavyweight debut)

What Is The Full UFC 329 Main Card?

McGregor vs. Holloway could sell tickets on its own, but there is more meat on the bone here. The UFC stacked the rest of the main card with names and stakes from top to bottom, giving International Fight Week a five-fight slate that doesn't drop off after the main event.

Benoit Saint-Denis vs. Paddy Pimblett anchors the co-main at lightweight.

Cory Sandhagen vs. Mario Bautista handles bantamweight contender duties. Brandon Royval vs. Lone’er Kavanaugh delivers a potential all-action flyweight fight. And Gable Steveson opens the PPV in his UFC debut at heavyweight against Elisha Ellison.

What Makes McGregor Vs. Holloway 2 The Biggest Fight Of 2026?

Technically, both fighters are coming off losses in their last fight, and both men are past their prime. However, McGregor and Holloway might be the two most popular fighters in the sport's history. EA UFC 6 drops a month before IFW and Holloway is one of the cover stars. Everything is aligned well.

The first fight was August 17, 2013 at UFC Fight Night 26, with McGregor taking a unanimous decision over a 21-year-old Holloway despite tearing his ACL early in the bout. Thirteen years later, the two meet at welterweight in Holloway’s weight-class debut, with McGregor returning from a nearly five-year layoff since his UFC 264 broken-leg loss to Dustin Poirier. The rematch is booked for five rounds, despite earlier reporting that McGregor's team pushed for three.

Will Paddy Pimblett Pass The Benoit Saint-Denis Test?

BSD could make a power move up the 155-pound rankings with a win, but Pimblett's ground game is amazing. We'll see if he sticks to it or if he allows BSD to pull him into a stand-up war like Justin Gaethje did in January.

Saint-Denis enters on a four-fight winning streak, most recently finishing Dan Hooker at UFC 325 in February. He’s a pressure-fighter built on relentless pace, heavy grappling and submission threats — exactly the kind of stylistic test Pimblett needs to pass to silence questions about his ceiling at the elite ranked level. Betting markets opened with BSD at -200 and Pimblett at +170, which lines up with the "is Paddy real" framing the matchmaking implies.

What's At Stake In Sandhagen Vs. Bautista And Royval Vs. Kavanaugh?

Cory Sandhagen is one of the most respected 135-pounders in the sport, but he's never gotten over the hump. This fight with Bautista could be his last realistic shot to move into position for a title shot.

Bautista brings the surging-contender energy on the climb, with a well-rounded pressure game that’s earned him a real ranked-level matchup. Royval vs. Kavanaugh is a different story — it's built for scramble chaos at flyweight, and notably the betting markets have Lone'er Kavanaugh as the favorite over Brandon Royval, which says everything about how the inside-the-sport read on this matchup has tilted.

Is Gable Steveson Ready For The UFC Heavyweight Division?

We'll find out pretty soon, even if it's not in Steveson's UFC debut. I'd be shocked if Ellison gets out of the first round.

Steveson won Olympic gold at 125 kg freestyle wrestling in the 2020 Tokyo Games and is a multiple-time NCAA champion at the University of Minnesota. He even spent time in WWE, NFL training camp with the Buffalo Bills and in Dirty Boxing.

The UFC has him entering as a huge favorite against Ellison.

After the strong night the heavyweight division had at MVP MMA 1 with Francis Ngannou’s highlight-reel KO of Philipe Lins, the UFC needs a real prospect push of its own, and Steveson is the cleanest candidate they have.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Mike Perry beat the brakes off Nate Diaz on Saturday night in the People's main event of MVP MMA 1 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Perry's accurate punching and surprisingly good submission defense were the major keys.

Perry banged Diaz to the body and folded the MMA legend several times in the first round. In the second, Perry's elbows and a vicious knee to Diaz's forehead left the latter a bloody mess. After the second round, Diaz's corner and the Hexagon-side doctor made the wise decision to stop the fight.

• Event: MVP MMA 1: Rousey vs. Carano
• Date: Saturday, May 16, 2026
• Venue: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
• Broadcast: Netflix
• Bout: Mike Perry vs. Nate Diaz (welterweight, co-main event)
• Result: Mike Perry def. Nate Diaz via TKO (doctor's stoppage — cuts) at 5:00 of R2
• Perry Record: 15-8
• Diaz Record: 22-14
• Scheduled Length: Five 5-minute rounds

How Did Mike Perry Beat Nate Diaz?

Perry controlled the fight from the opening bell by refusing to give Diaz the boxing distance he needed. Pocket exchanges, dirty boxing in the clinch and consistent pressure to the body added up faster than Diaz's volume could compensate for, and a cut over Diaz's right eye opened up early in Round 1.

Diaz secured a takedown on a beautiful throw in the first round, but he couldn’t do much with it despite a flurry of submission attempts. When Perry was able to call the fight back to the feet, it was all downhill for Diaz.

Round 2 turned ugly. Perry dropped Diaz with a knee in the closing seconds, unloading uppercuts, elbows and hooks as Diaz tried to bounce away from the fence. By the time the bell sounded, Diaz was a bloody mess and Perry's swarming finish sequence had already convinced both corners and the cageside doctor what needed to happen next.

What Was The Official Stoppage Call At MVP MMA 1?

The official result is listed as TKO (doctor's stoppage — cuts) at 5:00 of Round 2. The cageside doctor took the look between rounds, but Diaz's corner stepped in and made the final call to pull their fighter rather than send him out for Round 3.

Either way, the fight wasn't continuing, and the timing minimized any unnecessary additional damage.

It was the right call. Diaz had already been compromised by the cut and the accumulation of body shots, and Perry was clearly the fresher, more dangerous fighter heading into the back half of the bout. As Home of Fight noted in their post-fight breakdown, pushing into Round 3 with that level of damage would have only made the inevitable stoppage more brutal.

What Does This Win Do For Mike Perry?

Perry reinforced his "King of Violence" brand on the biggest stage of his MMA career. He came in with a built-in identity from his BKFC run, and a high-visibility welterweight TKO over a Diaz brother on Netflix is the kind of result that locks that identity in for the broader streaming audience MVP is trying to reach.

Perry wants an MMA fight with Jake Paul, and the latter who also served as a promoter for the fight, obliged the call out.

The win also positions Perry as one of the most plug-and-play co-main options on MVP's roster. The promotion now has a fighter it can put against almost any name in the 170-pound conversation and reasonably expect violence, finishes and viral clips.

After Robelis Despaigne's first-round destruction of Junior dos Santos opened the main card and Francis Ngannou's highlight-reel KO of Philipe Lins followed, Perry's TKO continues the trend of legacy fighters getting beaten up by the next wave.

Is It Time For Nate Diaz To Retire?

The 41-year-old hadn’t fought in MMA since 2022, and his return performance suggests the layoff did him no favors. Diaz says he’s not done and that he wants rematch with Perry, but it feels like more bravado.

Diaz looks washed. He absorbed a sustained beating from a fighter seven years younger and significantly fresher, and his durability is the only thing that prevented this from ending earlier than it did.

The retirement conversation isn’t new for Diaz . ACD MMA flagged it on social during the fight, but tonight’s loss adds another stamp of evidence. Diaz has built a career out of legendary toughness, but toughness against a younger, more explosive striker who doesn’t mind wars is exactly the formula that ages a fighter even faster than passing days.

Whether he listens to that conversation is another matter, but the case for him being more selective with matchups going forward is now impossible to argue against. In fact, walking away entirely shouldn’t be out of the question.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos planned to make a splash in the opening fight of the MVP MMA 1 show at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Things didn't go as planned.

Former UFC heavyweight and Olympic bronze medalist Robelis Despaigne destroyed JDS with a hellacious three-punch combination that left the latter in a heap against the Hexagon. Here is a look at the finish.

• Event: MVP MMA 1: Rousey vs. Carano
• Date: Saturday, May 16, 2026
• Venue: Intuit Dome, Los Angeles
• Broadcast: Netflix (first MMA fight ever streamed on the platform)
• Bout: Junior dos Santos vs. Robelis Despaigne (heavyweight, main-card opener)
• Result: Robelis Despaigne def. Junior dos Santos via Round 1 KO at 2:01
• JDS Record: 23-11
• Despaigne Record: 6-2

How Did Robelis Despaigne Knock Out Junior dos Santos?

Dos Santos came out firing low leg kicks and even rocked Despaigne with a counter right in the early exchanges, briefly raising hopes that the 42-year-old still had something left in the tank. The 6-foot-7 Despaigne was definitely bothered by the leg kicks, but he responded. He shook off a takedown attempt, which has been his bugaboo, fighting with his hands down, deliberately drawing JDS into close-range exchanges where his 84-inch reach could find angles.

The finish came at 2:01 of the opening round.

Despaigne landed a clean left hook, followed by a straight right that dropped JDS, then closed with a follow-up combination on the canvas. The Brazilian veteran’s chin, which had been holding up better than recent UFC losses suggested it would, finally gave out under the Karate Combat champion's power.

What Does This Loss Mean For Junior dos Santos' Career?

JDS framed this fight as his chance to prove he belonged in MVP’s long-term plans. He told media all week he was always looking for the knockout and that MVP had put him against Despaigne specifically because the promotion wanted highlight-reel finishes for the cameras. He got exactly the kind of fight he asked for, and the result was the wrong end of one of those highlights.

The 42-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion went 2-0 in Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA before this booking, which had built a narrative that he might have one more meaningful run left.

That narrative is now in serious doubt. JDS holds wins over Cain Velasquez, Stipe Miocic, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, Derrick Lewis and Mirko Cro Cop, but his MMA career has been on the wrong side of the aging curve since 2018, and Saturday's stoppage was the kind of one-sided beating that should prompt real conversation about retirement.

What Does This Win Do For Robelis Despaigne?

Despaigne walked in having lost his last two MMA fights. Both losses came during his short, turbulent 2024 UFC run that ended in his release after consecutive losses to Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Austen Lane. Beating a former UFC heavyweight champion in front of a Netflix global audience is the kind of resume builder that reshapes the rest of his career trajectory.

The Cuban Olympian’s profile gets a massive boost from this performance. This explains why he called out Francis Ngannou for a fight during his post-fight interview.

He went from Karate Combat champion with a 7-0 record in that ruleset to the first man to definitively close the book on JDS's MMA career, and he did it on the first MMA card ever streamed on Netflix. That visibility matters as much as the result itself.

What's Next On The MVP MMA 1 Card?

The Despaigne knockout opened the main card, which means there's still plenty of action ahead. Salahdine Parnasse vs. Kenneth Cross at lightweight, Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry at welterweight, and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins at heavyweight all sit between this fight and the women's featherweight main event between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.

Rousey already confirmed earlier this weekend that Carano will be her final MMA fight, which adds even more emotional weight to the headliner. After what just happened to JDS, the question becomes whether the rest of the legacy names on this card can deliver better outcomes than the man who opened the show.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com