UFC 328 comes with a surprisingly deep slate of eight prelims.
in what might be the most interesting match of the bunch, and it's also potentially a fun night at lightweight;Gautier's last win was his flattest performance in the UFC to date, but he remains one of the UFC's top middleweight prospects.
A 24-year old born in Cameroon and training in England, Gautier was an obvious talent in his win on the 2024 edition of the Contender Series. But the UFC still did well to bring him along slowly over the course of 2025, matching him with some of the lowest-level middleweights on the roster and allowing Gautier to explore the studio space; he still managed to string together first-round knockouts, but let the finishes occur in the course of the fight without rushing things, showing a surprising amount of poise given his youth and inexperience.
Gautier was similarly expected to make quick work of his first opponent of 2026 in, but while Gautier got the win, it was mostly considered a frustrating effort; Gautier got off to a hot start, but Pulyaev was successfully able to fight at range and stay out of Gautier's way. On the plus side, Gautier stayed calm and took advantage of what he was given, so there wasn't much in the way of physical or mental issues that would give Gautier a hard ceiling - instead, it was the type of showing that suggests Gautier needs some more experience, albeit a bit more than might have previously been expected.
To that end, Diaz is a nice next step as a crafty fighter dealing with a clear physical deficit. After a brief go at light heavyweight, Diaz is much more suited to the waters at 185 pounds; he's not much of an athlete in either division, and he at least has a sneaky large frame at 185 pounds despite not feeling all that imposing.
As a decade-plus veteran, Diaz has put together a smart approach built around pressure, but he's run into a ton of trouble against the best athletes that he's faced -- while he can bend but not break below a certain level of competition, hard hitters have been able to knock Diaz out sooner rather than later. Diaz could theoretically drag Gautier into another ugly fight, but the Californian is nowhere near as evasive as Pulyaev is, even if he might be the better fighter -- and that figures to walk him into a knockout at some point, even if he's able to survive the early going.
The pick is Gautier via first-round knockout. Luke Rockhold accuses Sean Strickland of beating down training partnersLuke Rockhold accuses Sean Strickland of beating down training partnersWhy former PFL champ Gadzhi Rabadanov isn’t chasing title shotAgeless Leandro Higo approaches PFL Sioux Falls in search of ‘gold key’
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