Charles Oliveira delivered a dominant showing at UFC 326 to snatch the BMF title from Max Holloway. However, soon after the fight, ‘Do Bronx’ started facing criticism because his performance didn’t exactly scream BMF, as he controlled ‘Blessed’ for over 20 minutes on the ground. That result sparked a question: Who are the real BMFs on today’s roster? Well, one former UFC champion believes he has the answer.

According to former two-division champ Henry Cejudo, three champions deserve to bear the BMF title after Oliveira’s performance met with disappointing reactions. So, with UFC 326’s fight in mind, he named three marquee fighters: Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira, and interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje (interim 155 lbs champ) as more deserving to call bad mother f— than ‘Do Bronxs’.

“Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira, as much as you think I hate him, Kamaru. Because he’s a finisher,” Henry Cejudo said on the Pound 4 Pound podcast with Kamaru Usman. “And my third, Justin Gaethje,” he added.

“I love that,” the co-host Usman nodded to ‘Triple C’s take. “For the first time, Henry, I’m gonna agree with you.”

To understand Henry Cejudo’s point, we need to look at why he chose others as the BMFs when Charles Oliveira has already been crowned the champion. When it comes to the UFC’s symbolic belt, it has developed a separate identity from the traditional titles. Fighters with heavy wrestling skills can still become champions, even if their style is sometimes seen as less exciting. But if they lack violence, the BMF belt isn’t meant for them.

That’s why UFC picked two absolute sluggers like Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz specifically to contest the belt at UFC 244. Now, when Charles Oliveira used a wrestling-based approach to secure the win and didn’t risk his chances the way Max Holloway usually does, fans called that approach out, even pleading with the UFC to retire the belt.

But as the former UFC champion and Olympian pointed out, Topuria, Pereira, and Gaethje are all fighters who prefer to finish their bouts or deliver violent performances rather than simply doing the minimum needed to win. Thus, Cejudo labeled them more deserving of the BMF title than Oliveira.

So, with fans and experts still criticizing the Brazilian’s performance, even Dana White has finally shared his thoughts about the UFC 326 main event.

Dana White reacts to Charles Oliveira vs Max Holloway’s UFC 326 BMF fight   

It won’t be a stretch to say that ‘Blessed’ and ‘Do Bronxs’ rematch after 11 years didn’t exactly go as planned, especially compared to how Dana White thought it would play out. So once the fight was over, everyone wanted to know whether the head honcho would deliver a fuming reaction to how the bout unfolded. But to everyone’s surprise, White was definitely critical of the fight without expressing it too furiously.

“I thought there would be a lot more stand up and I thought Max would do a better job of defending the takedown and if he got taken down he’d pop back up,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “Well, I think you’ll have those type of guys but the goal at the end of the day in every fight is to win.”

And that’s spot on. Max Holloway had the edge in the odds to beat Charles Oliveira not only because people relied on his striking, but also because ‘Blessed’ has a pretty solid takedown defense, and fans trusted that aspect of his game. But to ‘Do Bronxs’ credit, he showed a different level of ground control in the UFC 326 headliner, upsetting Holloway’s fanbase and some notable fighters as well.

That said, do you think Charles Oliveira deserves the title of BMF? Or should someone else carry that status? Let us know in the comments section below.