UFC 329 was supposed to be about one fight. It became about everything. McGregor's injury. Holloway's hollow win. Pimblett's arrival. Steveson's debut. Whittaker's move. The event touched nearly every major division in the UFC, and the landscape has shifted in ways we are only beginning to understand.
Welterweight is the most directly affected. McGregor was supposed to be a player at 170. That is now gone. Holloway won but may not stay. He is a featherweight moving up for a specific fight. The division belongs to Belal Muhammad, and the contenders behind him, Shavkat Rakhmonov and Jack Della Maddalena, do not need McGregor. Welterweight moves on without the Notorious. It was going to anyway.
Lightweight is where the real action is. Paddy Pimblett just put the division on notice. His 52-second submission of Benoit Saint Denis was a statement. He wants Ilia Topuria. Justin Gaethje is the champion. Topuria is coming. Paddy is knocking. The lightweight division in 2026 is the most competitive in the UFC, and UFC 329 just added fuel to the fire. The matchups are endless, and they are all dangerous.
Light heavyweight just got a new contender. Robert Whittaker debuted at 205 with a potential jaw-breaking performance. Magomed Ankalaev is the champion. Alex Pereira is still in the mix. Now Whittaker enters the conversation. The division was thin. It just got less thin. A Whittaker-Ankalaev fight is a fascinating stylistic matchup, and a Whittaker-Pereira fight is a striking fan's dream. The 205 division has options it did not have 24 hours ago.
Heavyweight has Gable Steveson. The Olympic gold medalist debuted with a first-round knockout. The division is ruled by Jon Jones, but Jones's future is uncertain. Steveson is raw, but the tools are elite. If he develops, he is a problem for everyone. The heavyweight division has been waiting for the next generation. It may have just found it.
At KORUSH, we love moments like this. One event reshaping the entire sport. UFC 329 was supposed to be a McGregor comeback story. Instead, it became a changing of the guard. The old star fell. The new stars rose. The divisions shifted. The future arrived. And the most exciting part is that none of it was planned. The sport wrote its own story, as it always does, and the next chapters are going to be incredible.
The lightweight title picture will sort itself out in the coming months. The welterweight division will continue without McGregor. The light heavyweight division has a new player. The heavyweight division has a new prospect. UFC 329 was one night, but its effects will be felt for years. That is the beauty of this sport. One moment changes everything. And at UFC 329, we had about five of those moments in a single evening.
Stay tuned to KORUSH for all the developments. The Pick'em boards are updating. The predictions are open. The next events are being booked. The chaos of UFC 329 is settling into the new reality of the UFC, and we will be here for every moment of it. Because in MMA, the fight never ends. It just moves to the next division.