Major UFC 335 Fight Pushed to Headline First UFC Cleveland Card in 10 Years

One of the bigger fights scheduled for the year-ending UFC 335 card has apparently been pushed to next year.

Scheduled to take place at T-Mobile Arena on December 12, UFC 335 is headlined by a “BMF” championship bout between reigning titleholder Charles Oliveira and two-time featherweight title challenger Diego Lopes.

The co-main event features former two-division UFC titleholder Alex Pereira taking on Sergei Pavlovich for his second heavyweight outing, and the card also recently added a huge women’s flyweight bout between Maycee Barber and Carli Judice.

The UFC 335 main card was also supposed to feature an important middleweight contest between Joe Pyfer and Bo Nickal, who last competed at UFC Freedom 250 at The White House over the summer.

Per Nickal himself, the fight with Pyfer has apparently been pushed back to 2027 and will now headline a yet-to-be-announced UFC Fight Night event in Cleveland.

“I got a call backstage, and I do have some news, which is pretty exciting,” Nickal said during a rally for Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio (h/t Bloody Elbow). “[Ramaswamy] right here mentioned my fight in December. It actually got moved to February, where I’m going to be main eventing in Cleveland…We are gonna go smash this guy and then go take the belt.”

If Nickal’s update is true, then February will see the UFC return to Cleveland for just the second time after the city previously hosted UFC 203 more than ten years ago.

A three-time NCAAA Division 1 national champion in wrestling, Nickal made two appearances on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022 and formally signed on with the UFC after only three professional MMA fights.

The 30-year-old stopped his first two UFC opponents in under a round of combined fight time before he also finished Cody Brundage at UFC 300, and he improved to 4-0 in the UFC when he took a unanimous decision over Paul Craig to close out 2024.

Following a sizeable upset at the hands of Reinier de Ridder, Nickal rebounded by knocking out Rodolfo Vieira before he most recently stopped Kyle Daukaus at the aforementioned UFC White House event in June.

The matchup with Pyfer represents a major chance for Nickal to vault into middleweight title contention, as “Bodybagz” is currently on a four-fight win streak and stopped two-time UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya his last time out in March.

With Pyfer vs. Nickal now pushed to February, fans will have to wait and see what other bouts the UFC has in mind to help bolster UFC 335 with just under two months to go until the event.

Main Event: Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes – For the UFC “BMF” Championship

Co-Main Event: Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich

Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson

Maycee Barber vs. Carli Judice

Quentin Pasley vs. Junior Tafa

Chris Padilla vs. Chase Hooper