May 2026 was not a quiet month in the UFC.

It had a former champion returning to the throne, a scary Brazilian welterweight destroying a hometown hero, a featherweight contender rebuilding his momentum, and Song Yadong closing the month by giving the Chinese crowd the ending they were begging for.

In short:

May was chaos wearing four-ounce gloves.

The UFC ran major events on May 2, May 9, May 16, and May 30, with UFC Perth, UFC 328, UFC Vegas 117, and UFC Macau shaping the month’s story.

---

🇦🇺 UFC Fight Night: Della Maddalena vs. Prates

Event: UFC Fight Night: Della Maddalena vs. Prates
Date: May 02, 2026
Location: Perth, Western Australia, Australia 🇦🇺

Carlos Prates Turned Perth Into a Nightmare

The month started in Perth, Australia, where Jack Della Maddalena returned home against Carlos Prates.

On paper, this looked like Jack’s rebound opportunity. Former champion. Home crowd. Familiar territory. A chance to reset after losing his belt to Islam Makhachev.

Instead, Carlos Prates walked into enemy territory and turned the entire arena into his personal crime scene.

Prates defeated Jack Della Maddalena by third-round TKO after repeatedly hurting him with leg kicks, knees, and head attacks. Reuters reported that Prates dropped Jack with a calf kick in Round 2, then scored multiple knockdowns in Round 3 before the referee stopped the fight.

Prates did not scrape past a former champion. He broke him down layer by layer. The scary part is how calm it looked. No panic. No rush. Just a tall sniper slowly finding the correct buttons until Jack’s system started shutting down.

The welterweight division already had enough problems with the question:

“Who’s next for the title? Ian Garry or Michael Morales“.

Now it has “The Nightmare” standing in the hallway with a cigarette and bad intentions.

---

Quillan Salkilld Sent Beneil Dariush Deeper Into Trouble

The Perth card also gave us another uncomfortable veteran moment.

Quillan Salkilld defeated Beneil Dariush by first-round TKO in the co-main event, improving his record to 12-1.

For Salkilld, this was a massive name to add to the resume.

For Dariush, it was another painful sign that the lightweight shark tank has no sympathy. He has been fighting elite killers for years, but at some point, the division stops asking politely. It just takes your chair.

That is the brutal truth of lightweight.

You are never “safe veteran guy.”

You are either still dangerous, or someone younger uses your name as a ladder.

---

🇺🇸 UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland

Event: UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland
Date: May 09, 2026
Location: Newark, New Jersey, USA 🇺🇸

Sean Strickland Shocked Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328

Then came the biggest moment of the month.

UFC 328 landed in Newark on May 9, headlined by Khamzat Chimaev vs Sean Strickland for the middleweight title. Strickland defeated Chimaev by split decision, with two judges scoring it 48-47 for Strickland and one scoring it 48-47 for Chimaev.

That result did two huge things:

1. Sean Strickland became a two-time UFC middleweight champion.
2. Khamzat Chimaev suffered the first loss of his professional MMA career.

And this fight had the perfect MMA controversy recipe.

Khamzat dominated early with wrestling. Strickland survived. Then the fight slowly became a cardio, jab, pressure, and judging debate cooked inside a five-round microwave.

The simple answer is:

Khamzat got tired.

But the better answer is:

Strickland made the fight expensive enough for Khamzat’s early explosiveness to fade.

That is why this result matters. It was not just “Sean has better cardio.” It was Sean forcing Khamzat to keep working, defending shots, surviving bad spots, and dragging him into the kind of ugly long fight where Strickland becomes weirdly comfortable.

Sean Strickland fights like tax paperwork with boxing gloves.

Nobody enjoys dealing with it.

But somehow, it keeps winning rounds.

---

Joshua Van Proved His Flyweight Title Was Not a Fluke

UFC 328 was not only about Strickland and Khamzat.

Joshua Van also defended his flyweight title against Tatsuro Taira in the co-main event, winning by fifth-round TKO at 1:32 of Round 5.

That is a huge result for Van.

There had been some debate around his championship status because of how quickly his rise happened, but beating Taira in a hard fight gave his title reign more weight. A fifth-round finish in a title fight is not “lucky champion” behavior.

That is champion behavior.

Van vs Taira also earned Fight of the Night honors, while Jim Miller and Yaroslav Amosov earned Performance of the Night bonuses.

May 2026 quietly became a very important month for the flyweight division.

Van did not just keep the belt.

He made the belt feel more real.

---

🇺🇸 UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Costa

Event: UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Costa
Date: May 16, 2026
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 🇺🇸

Arnold Allen Got Back on Track at UFC Vegas 117

After the madness of UFC 328, UFC Vegas 117 was more of a reset event.

Arnold Allen defeated Melquizael Costa by unanimous decision in the May 16 main event, with scorecards of 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46.

Allen needed that.

He came into the fight with pressure on him after a rough stretch, while Costa had serious momentum. Instead of letting the new wave drown him, Allen reminded everyone why he has been a top featherweight for years.

This was not a viral knockout. It was more like a professional repair job.

Control the pace. Win the minutes. Stop the bleeding.
Sometimes that is exactly what a fighter needs.

Doo Ho Choi also picked up a strong co-main event win, defeating Daniel Santos by second-round TKO.

---

🇨🇳 UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Figueiredo

Event: UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Figueiredo
Date: May 30, 2026
Location: Macau, China 🇨🇳

Song Yadong Saved the Night in Macau

The final UFC event of the month took place in Macau on May 30, headlined by Song Yadong vs Deiveson Figueiredo.

And for the local crowd, the night needed Song badly.

Several Chinese fighters struggled earlier on the card, but Song delivered in the main event by submitting Figueiredo with a guillotine choke at 4:42 of Round 2.

That is a serious win.

Figueiredo is not just some random veteran. He is a former flyweight champion, dangerous everywhere, and famously tricky in scrambles. Song submitting him was not just surprising. It was symbolic.

He beat the former flyweight king with one of the weapons Figueiredo himself has used throughout his career.

That is cold.

Song also called for a rematch with Petr Yan after the win, aiming to climb back into the bantamweight title picture.

Bantamweight remains a traffic jam full of knives, but Song just threw himself right back into the conversation.

---

Sergei Pavlovich and Kai Asakura Added Violence to the Macau Card

Macau was not only about Song.

Sergei Pavlovich reminded everyone that heavyweight remains the division where blinking is a financial mistake. He knocked out Tallison Teixeira in just 39 seconds, extending his momentum and calling for a title-level opportunity afterward.

Kai Asakura also picked up his first UFC win by knocking out Cameron Smotherman, earning a $100,000 bonus and reviving his UFC momentum after a difficult start in the promotion.

For Asakura, this mattered a lot.

A flashy signing with two early UFC losses starts to feel like a warning label. A knockout win changes the smell in the room immediately.

Now people are interested again.

That is MMA.

One bad night makes you overrated.

One good knockout makes you reborn.

---

Biggest Winner of May 2026: Sean Strickland

There were many strong winners this month.

Carlos Prates looked terrifying.
Joshua Van validated his belt.
Song Yadong gave Macau a hero moment.
Sergei Pavlovich smashed another heavyweight.

But the biggest winner has to be Sean Strickland.

He beat the undefeated monster, reclaimed the middleweight title, and became a two-time champion.

And he changed the entire conversation around Khamzat Chimaev.

Before UFC 328, the question was:

Who can survive Khamzat?

After UFC 328, the question became:

Can Khamzat survive five rounds against someone who refuses to break?

That is a huge shift.

---

Biggest Stock Rise: Carlos Prates

Prates might not have won a belt in May, but his stock exploded.

Finishing Jack Della Maddalena in Perth was a monster result. It was violent, clean, and meaningful for the welterweight title picture.

The welterweight division now has a new nightmare problem:
A tall, dangerous striker with finishing power who seems to be getting more confident every fight.

That is not a fun email for anyone ranked above him.

---

Biggest Question After May

The biggest question is probably about Khamzat Chimaev.

• Was UFC 328 just a bad night?
• Was it weight-cut damage?
• Was it cardio?
• Was it Sean Strickland’s style?

Or was it the first real sign that Khamzat’s pressure system has a five-round ceiling against the wrong opponent?

Reports after the fight added more fuel to the weight-cut discussion, including comments from T.J. Dillashaw about how bad Khamzat’s cut allegedly was before UFC 328.

That does not erase what Strickland did.

But it does make the next Khamzat fight even more interesting.

Because now the aura has a crack in it.

And once an aura cracks, every contender starts staring at the blueprint.

---

Final Thoughts

May 2026 was one of those UFC months where the sport reminded us how fast narratives can flip.

• Jack Della Maddalena went from former champion trying to rebound to victim of the Prates nightmare.
• Khamzat Chimaev went from undefeated champion to first-loss controversy.
• Sean Strickland went from awkward pressure boxer to two-time middleweight champion.
• Joshua Van went from questioned flyweight champion to validated titleholder.
• Song Yadong went from needing a bounce-back to submitting a former champion in Macau.

You start the month thinking the map looks stable.

Then four weeks later, somebody spilled violence coffee all over the rankings.

May 2026 did not just give us results.

It gave us new questions.

And in MMA, new questions are where the good stories begin.