Why UFC 314 has just become the best fight card of 2025 ESPN

The UFC was busy announcing big fights Wednesday night, unveiling the main and co-main events for both UFC 314 in April and UFC 315 in May.

The fight bookings, which CEO Dana White announced on Instagram Live, answered many lingering questions and raised new questions.

With former champion Alexander Volkanovski set to face Diego Lopes for the featherweight title at UFC 314, what does it mean for the champ who is vacating? Will Ilia Topuria get the lightweight title fight he craves?

Does Belal Muhammad have staying power with the welterweight belt now that he's been booked for his first title defense against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315?

Those are the main events, but both fight cards are packed with intrigue. At UFC 314, Michael Chandler will finally step into the cage with a star from across the pond, but it'll be Paddy Pimblett, not Conor McGregor. At UFC 315, women's flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko finally gets to fight someone not named Alexa Grasso -- how will the 36-year-old two-time champ fare against top contender Manon Fiorot?

Several weight classes will feel the impact of these fights. Beyond the three divisions with newly booked title bouts -- welterweight, featherweight and women's flyweight -- there'll be a new top contender at lightweight now that Topuria is moving up, and strawweight will remain under the rule of Zhang Weili, at least for the time being. Her planned move up to the 125-pound division will be delayed, now that there's a flyweight title fight on the books.

ESPN's Brett Okamoto and Andreas Hale tackle these and other questions, and betting expert Ian Parker picks out three fights that he believes he has figured out.

On paper, is UFC 314 the best card since UFC 300 a year ago?

Hale: Uh, yeah! As long as the card stays together, far from a given these days. The UFC has been snakebit by injuries since UFC 300, and while it has been fun to see Alex Pereira repeatedly come to the rescue, the quality of the pay-per-view cards has been somewhat lacking. Although UFC 308 (Topuria-Max Holloway) and Noche UFC (Sean O'Malley-Merab Dvalishvili) were solid, UFC 314 is impressively loaded with meaningful fights.

Editor's Picks

2 Related

Aside from Volkanovski-Lopes and what could be a really fun fight between Chandler and Pimblett, we are finally getting the UFC debut of Patricio "Pitbull" Freire in a banger of a fight against former title contender Yair Rodriguez.

This card also features a wicked showdown between ferocious striker Carlos Prates and Geoff Neal, a generational battle as 41-year-old Jim Miller gives up 16 years of age to 25-year-old Chase Hooper, and a women's strawweight bout with major title implications between Yan Xiaonan and Virna Jandiroba. Add in light heavyweight contender Dominick Reyes, who is aiming to continue his resurgence against Nikita Krylov, and a sneaky fight-of-the-night contender as Darren Elkins battles Julian Erosa in a featherweight bout, and you have a fantastic Miami fight card.

All the UFC has to do now is put every fighter in bubble wrap and hope for the best.

With the featherweight title soon to be vacant, are we looking at an Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev fight later this year?

Okamoto: That's the million-dollar question, right? It would certainly seem likely. It'd be a massive event, which means the UFC likes it. Had Topuria tried to hold up the featherweight division in this pursuit, the UFC would be less onboard. But since he's vacating the belt, there's no obvious reason the promotion would keep him from a lightweight title fight.

Here's the catch: Makhachev is on record saying he doesn't believe Topuria deserves it. Makhachev is the world's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, i and his opinion does mean something. My prediction is that Makhachev will defend his belt against another contender, and Topuria will have to book one nontitle fight at lightweight before getting his crack at the belt -- which is fair, by the way.

Money talks and this is immediately one of the biggest fights the UFC can make, but I do believe it won't happen right away if Makhachev remains uninterested. Just because it's not next, however, doesn't mean it can't happen in 2025.

If Paddy Pimblett beats Michael Chandler, he has a chance to be ...

Okamoto: The new Michael Chandler of the division. It's a funny way of saying it, but it's true. What has Chandler been to the lightweight division since debuting in the UFC in 2021? He's been an all-action, breath-of-fresh-air opponent for top guys. He's been a perennial title challenger and a proposed opponent for Conor McGregor.

If Pimblett wins, he immediately becomes all of those things. He'd be a household name and could headline his own card or do exactly what he's doing at UFC 314: take on another big name in a five-round co-headliner to sell pay-per-views. He'd be right there in terms of title contention. And even though very few of us expect McGregor to ever fight again, if he does ... Pimblett is probably the No. 1 option.

What should UFC fans expect from longtime Bellator fighter Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire?

Hale: Those who haven't watched Pitbull in action are in for a treat. The UFC matchmakers didn't give the former two-division Bellator champion an easy fight for his debut. Instead, Pitbull will have to deal with the incredibly creative striking of Yair Rodriguez in his first fight inside the Octagon.

This is an excellent matchup that will almost certainly deliver fireworks. It can be argued that Pitbull arriving in the UFC just a few months shy of his 38th birthday with 43 MMA fights under his belt could mean that we have missed out on the Brazilian's prime years. But the opportunity to see arguably the best fighter to compete outside of the UFC finally make his debut on the world's biggest MMA stage is more than worth the price of admission.

What should you expect? Violence. A lot of violence. And then we'll start to figure out exactly where Pitbull fits into a now wide-open featherweight division with Topuria moving up to 155 pounds. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Pitbull could find himself challenging for UFC gold before the end of the year.

Will Belal Muhammad's welterweight title reign be one-and-done?

Hale: No. The level of disrespect Muhammad has had to deal with is outrageous. But I also understand why people expect Muhammad to be a transitional champion. While Muhammad hasn't lost in over six years and is undefeated in his last 11 fights, he has just two finishes during his current run, and that's not enough from the fighter who carries the moniker "Remember the Name."

The reality is that Muhammad has been exceptional during his unbeaten run and got to his title opportunity the hard way by defeating Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, Sean Brady and Gilbert Burns before running roughshod over Leon Edwards last July.

While Jack Della Maddalena is incredibly talented, overlooking Muhammad in this fight would be a fool's errand. This isn't the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmamov. Della Maddalena had to dig himself out of a hole to beat Burns last March and won two narrow split decisions over Kevin Holland and Bassil Hafez to get this opportunity.

Muhammad should be the favorite heading into the fight with Della Maddalena, but something tells me that fans will root for his downfall in his first title defense.

Coming out of UFC 315, are we more likely to see Valentina Shevchenko-Alexa Grasso 4, Shevchenko-Zhang Weili or Manon Fiorot-Grasso?

Okamoto: Shevchenko vs. Zhang for sure. The UFC won't look to do Shevchenko-Grasso 4 under any circumstances other than pure desperation (Shevchenko-Grasso are 1-1-1 in their trilogy). If one of those scenarios happens where a card has to be saved and Shevchenko is already on it, then maybe the UFC would go there again. But no one is in any kind of hurry to book that matchup for the fourth time.

Fiorot is a tough title challenger for women's flyweight champion Shevchenko, but in my mind, Shevchenko is still the favorite to beat anyone in this division, especially after the exclamation point she put on the Grasso trilogy. If Shevchenko wins, I am pretty certain the UFC will look to book the champion vs. champion matchup. Zhang, the strawweight champion, has no huge fights left in her division, after disposing of the undefeated Tatiana Suarez earlier this month at UFC 312. The UFC already discussed the idea of Shevchenko vs. Zhang as recently as last year. Not only do I expect that fight to come out of UFC 315 (depending on the outcome, of course), I expect it to be a big part of the conversation before and immediately after the event.

How does betting expert Ian Parker lean on the top fights announced for UFC 314 and UFC 315?

Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes: Even though I'm happy Volkanovski gets a chance to win his featherweight title back, I have to go with the surging Lopes. Lopes has the power, physical size and strength that Volkanovski has had trouble with in recent KO losses.

Paddy Pimblett vs. Michael Chandler: When it comes to action and fun fights, look no farther than Chandler. His five-round co-main event with Pimblett at UFC 314 has fight of the night written all over it. This fight is going to come down to whether Pimblett can survive the early onslaught of Chandler in the first round. If he can, he can catch Chandler when he slows down in Round 2 and latch onto a submission. Either way, someone is getting finished in this fight.

Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena: I think this is a much better matchup for Muhammad than fighting Shavkat Rakhmonov, who was expected to get the title shot but is injured. We've seen Della Maddalena struggle with grappling against previous opponents including Gilbert Burns. Against a better wrestler with endless cardio such as Muhammad, he's going to have an issue. Look for Muhammad to utilize his boxing to close the distance and turn this into a Belal Muhammad type of wrestling match where he probably gets the win by decision.