Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) unveiled UFC 332’s main event last weekend, announcing that Natalia Silva will collide with Wang Cong for the vacant women’s Flyweight title on Sat., Oct. 3, 2026, inside Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
It’s safe to say the announcement did not exactly receive universal praise.
Fans immediately criticized the promotion for booking Silva vs. Wang as the headliner of a numbered event, especially with former Flyweight champion, Deiveson Figueiredo, facing rising prospect, Payton Talbott, in an equally underwhelming co-main event.
But hey, we wanted UFC pay-per-views (PPV) to disappear, right?
Former UFC Heavyweight-turned podcaster, Brendan Schaub, believes UFC 332 represents the potential downside of the promotion’s new broadcast model. With fans already paying for Paramount+ instead of purchasing individual events, Schaub argued that UFC no longer feels the same pressure to load every numbered card with established stars.
“It’s like UFC got the ball to the one-yard line and then said, ‘F—k it,’ and gave up,” Schaub said on The Big Brown Breakdown. “Everything was lining up for this to be a banger card. The undercard is fantastic, but then they gave us this. In hindsight, no more PPV for us in America is great, but this is the byproduct. They already have our money and don’t have to sell us on the card. This is the downside.”
Schaub then turned his attention toward UFC’s matchmakers, questioning how Silva vs. Wang was approved as the main event of a numbered card that will air on CBS and Paramount+.
“I just want to know who was like, ‘I’ve got it! Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong!’” Schaub said. “Did everyone in that room say, ‘That’s sick!’? Because if they did, you should all be out of a job. It is so disheartening that this is the main event, and UFC is like, ‘You ain’t gonna do s—t.’ There should be some sort of repercussion for this. If I’m Utah, I wouldn’t have paid for this.”
Schaub saved his harshest criticism for Wang, who has never previously headlined a UFC event and has only competed five times inside the Octagon.
“This is hands down — and I’m not exaggerating — the worst main event in MMA history,” Schaub said. “Wang Cong should never be headlining a card and shouldn’t be fighting for a title.”
Okay, Schaub might be going a little overboard.
There is certainly an argument that Silva vs. Wang is one of the weakest numbered-event headliners in modern UFC history, particularly when it comes to mainstream name recognition. However, describing it as the worst main event in all of MMA history feels like a stretch.
Silva is unquestionably deserving of a championship opportunity. The Brazilian is 8-0 inside UFC, has won 14 consecutive fights overall and owns victories over three former champions: Rose Namajunas, Alexa Grasso and Jessica Andrade. Wang, meanwhile, has won four straight since suffering the only loss of her career.
The rest of UFC 332 is considerably stronger, featuring King Green vs. Esteban Ribovics, Khaos Williams vs. Roberto Soldic, Ateba Gautier vs. Roman Kopylov and Johnny Walker’s Heavyweight debut against Mick Parkin.
Perhaps the bigger takeaway is that UFC made it through most of its first year on Paramount+ without producing a truly awful numbered-event headliner — probably because UFC Freedom 250 swallowed up so much elite talent earlier in the year.
Uneven cards may simply be part of the tradeoff for killing the PPV model.
Oh well … we’re all still going to watch, and we should probably get used to it.
