UFC 335 card fills out: Oliveira–Lopes for the BMF, Pereira–Pavlovich, and Pyfer vs. Nickal at middleweight

UFC 335 has more than two names on it now. UFC.com’s event page for Saturday, Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas lists three bouts: BMF champion Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes, Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich at heavyweight, and Joe Pyfer vs. Bo Nickal at middleweight. The main card is set for 9 p.m. ET, with prelims at 7 p.m. and early prelims at 5 p.m.

What’s new: Pyfer vs. Nickal is on UFC primary

When UFC announced the event during the UFC 332 broadcast on Oct. 3, the UFC.com news item by Kevin Schuster named only the top two fights. Pyfer–Nickal appeared in secondary reports, and MMA.news did not treat it as booked. That has changed. The UFC 335 event page now lists Joe Pyfer vs. Bo Nickal as a Middleweight Bout, and both fighters’ UFC.com athlete pages show it as their upcoming fight on Dec. 12, 2026.

It is a ranked fight, not a title fight. Pyfer is No. 6 on the media-panel middleweight rankings (No. 4 on UFC’s Meta board). Nickal is No. 14 (No. 12 on Meta). Sean Strickland remains the UFC middleweight champion, and no middleweight title bout is on any fetched event page.

Pyfer, 16-3 per UFC.com, has won three straight: a unanimous decision over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 316, a second-round submission of Abus Magomedov at UFC 320, and a KO/TKO of former champion Israel Adesanya at 4:18 of the second round on March 28.

Nickal, 9-1, has one career loss — a second-round KO/TKO by Reinier de Ridder in May 2025. Since then he has stopped Rodolfo Vieira in the third round at UFC 322 and Kyle Daukaus in the first round at UFC Freedom 250 in June.

The matchup puts a top-10 middleweight coming off his biggest win against a lower-ranked fighter on a two-fight streak. It is Pyfer’s first booking since the Adesanya fight.

Main event: Oliveira (BMF) vs. Lopes — lightweight debut for Lopes

Charles Oliveira defends the BMF title against Diego Lopes. UFC.com frames Lopes’ appearance as his UFC lightweight debut after a featherweight run that included two title challenges. Oliveira, per the same item, captured the BMF belt at UFC 326 with a five-round unanimous decision over Max Holloway. The event page lists the bout as a Lightweight Bout; the BMF framing comes from the UFC.com announcement.

The BMF belt is a ceremonial strap. It is not the undisputed lightweight championship. Justin Gaethje remains the UFC lightweight champion on UFC.com athlete and rankings pages, with no 2026 return booked and no interim on any fetched event page. Arman Tsarukyan’s contender frame after UFC 331 is unchanged by this booking.

Lopes’ UFC losses, UFC.com notes, have come against current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and Volkanovski’s next challenger, Movsar Evloev — the same pair stacked for the featherweight title at UFC 333 on Oct. 24. Outside those losses, UFC.com cites knockout wins over Steve Garcia and Jean Silva among Lopes’ featherweight results.

Co-main: Pereira vs. Pavlovich — heavyweight, non-title

Alex Pereira returns for his second heavyweight bout against Sergei Pavlovich. UFC.com describes Pereira’s heavyweight debut loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 and says Pereira “looks to put himself right back into the heavyweight title picture with a win over the No. 2 ranked contender.”

That is contender language, not an eliminator bill and not a title fight. Ciryl Gane remains undisputed heavyweight champion; his first defense is still Josh Hokit at UFC 334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden. Pavlovich, per UFC.com, enters on a three-fight winning streak with recent wins over Waldo Cortes Acosta and Jairzinho Rozenstruik and a sub-minute stoppage of Tallison Teixeira.

Some secondary reports have called Pereira–Pavlovich a five-round fight. UFC.com has not said so in the announcement or on the event page, so this page does not treat it as five rounds.

What this does not change

No divisional championship is on this card. Lightweight’s undisputed belt stays with Gaethje. Heavyweight’s undisputed belt stays with Gane, and the Nov. 14 title defense stays Gane–Hokit. Middleweight’s belt stays with Strickland. Featherweight and bantamweight title nights at UFC 333 (Volkanovski–Evloev; Yan–Merab 3) stay intact.

Bottom line

UFC 335 now has three bouts on UFC primary: Oliveira defends the BMF against Lopes on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena, Pereira meets Pavlovich at heavyweight, and Pyfer faces Nickal in a ranked middleweight fight. None is a divisional title fight. More of the card is still to come.