The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 332 makes history, new champion crowned; UFC 335 main and co-main announced

Episode Date: October 4, 2026

Ariel Helwani and the Boys in the Back react to UFC 332, including Natalia Silva's title winning performance against Wang Cong (01:05), Payton Talbott shining again (05:30), Esteban Ribovics stopping King Green (07:38), Roberto Soldic's successful UFC debut (08:36), and more (09:33).Plus, they give their thoughts on the newly announced UFC 335 fights, including the BMF title fight between Charles Oliveira and Diego Lopes and the return of Alex Pereira (12:34).

Hello and welcome to our UFC 332 post-fight show. I'm Ariel Halwani. That is New York, Rick. That is G.C. Connor Birx. And yes, we are not in our usual locale for these post-fight shows. We are in the heart, or should I say, downtown New York City, at a beautiful venue called One for One. And this is all courtesy of our good friends over at Kalshi, Chandler. Do me a favor and turn around, because we've got some friends here.

We've got a whole host of people here. Look at this crowd right here. This has been amazing. We have been hanging out with all these people for the entire evening watching UFC 332 here in New York City, home of the 26 NBA champion New York Knickabunkers, and it has been an amazing time,

all courtesy of our good friends over at Calci. So download the app right now and use the code on Crown and tell them we sent you because they support us, so we want you. you to support them. Now, let's talk about the fights. Natalia Silva is the brand new, reigning defending UFC women's flyway champion. She is now the one holding that belt, but of course,

in the eyes of the public, Valentina Shevchenko is still the sort of, dare I say, uncrown champion. You see what I did there? Very nice. Now, the title fight that just happened, Natalia Silva, beating Wang Tong, and I thought very impressive fashion, just the second UFC women's flyway title fight ever to not involve the bullet. Valentiator. Shevchenko. I thought she looked great. Rick, what do you think? Prototypical Natalia Silver performance, movement, volume. Really, Wang Tong didn't have answers for her and was able to get it done in impressive fashion. I thought 49, 46 was the right scorecard, 2.48-47s. But now the shadow of Valentina Shevchenko looms large. You can't help but think how she's going to do when she inevitably

fights Valentina Shepchenko. By the way, speaking to Rick, I realized that I was probably yelling at the start there. We've been yelling the entire night because it's been so loud here. So I'm going to try to bring my volume down. But I'm so excited to be with all these great people. I mean, how great are these people here? Yes. Look at these people. They're the freaking best. By the way, more history for Natalia Silva. She now has the best start for a female fighter in UFC history, 9 and 0 to start her career, beating Yawani on Jacek, who was at 8 and O's. She was tied with her going into this fight. I was super impressed. You know what I was really impressed? 25 minutes for Silva. She's moving the entire time, that is very tiring. That actually wears on you. She looked very good.

Although at the very end it got a little dicey there. Overall, what do you think of her performance? Yeah, cardio was solid. And I do have to say, I understand you yelling because it feels like we're talking to the audience right now, but we have to remember we're actually talking to the camera here. We're talking to the microphone. It feels like a stand-up news segment right now. It feels like local news. It's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, she was great. Up until the end, it got a little bit Dicey, like you said, but she was ultimately never in any real danger. She set the tone early in the first two rounds from there. It kind of felt like she was rolling downhill.

I agree with Rick, 49-46. It felt like she was in control most of the fight. I think Wang close in the third round, I believe it was. Got dropped with the head kick at one point, but yeah, felt like it was a ho-hum performance for Natalia Silva, and now it feels like we get the fight that we were supposed to get, Natalia Silva, Valentina Shepchenko, hopefully sometime in 2020. Okay, so usually I would ask these gentlemen,

but I want to see if the people are actually listening behind us. All right, so I'm going to say Natalia Silva or Valentina Shevchenko. If they fight and we hope that they will fight in the year 2027, who do we think is going to win? So the louder pop is what the people believe. So Natalia Silva. Wow. Valentina Shefchenko. Wow, wow, wow.

I'm going Natalia Silva. I'm actually shocked by that. I'm really surprised. I'm not. You think Chef Chico wins? considering the success that Wang Tong had in the clinch and when she was on the front foot, I think if Valentina gets in those same positions, has her against the cage, it's going to be really bad. I'm thinking the Alexa Grasso performance. I'm thinking the Manon Fioro performance.

I'm thinking any time that she's gone to the grappling heavily, she's been very successful. And so I think that she's going to be able to control her in the clinch. And you know, I have to say, I have to say, super impressive for Natalia Silva to beat Wang Tong. When you consider the fact that Wang has wins over the likes of Alexa Grasso, Rose Namajunis, Jessica Andrudge. No, no, no, but she doesn't know. Oh, that's right. That's right. That was the other one, right? Oh, Wang Tong?

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'm not sure. Who can check? I mean, who's to check these days? It's very hard to keep up with the fighters that are fighting for your promotion. So congratulations to Natalia. She was very emotional afterwards. A huge win for her. She gets to realize her dream. Her friend Mackenzie Dern in the cage. to celebrate with her. And let's hope that we hear from Valentina in the near future. We have not heard anything from her since this announcement was made. We don't know if she's hurt, if she's in

favor of this, if she willingly gave up the belt, if she didn't want to give up the belt, hopefully more answers to come. What a card overall, though. As I've always said, never judge a card beforehand, always wait until afterwards. And I have to say, this card has been amazing. So much fun. 11 TKOs or KOs. on this card. It was one after the next. And what about, what about Peyton Talbot? What about that Peyton Talbot beating Davidson Figurato? Back-to-back wins over former champions. This time, Davidson Figurato, a very impressive first round finish for Payne Talbot. Yeah, I mean, it was unbelievable. I do feel like he got both Henry Suhudo and Davidson Figurato at good times in their careers,

both of them on the back end. But to come out there and knock out a former champion like Davidson in Figuero, like that is unbelievable. Love him getting on the mic. Didn't understand the Andrew Garfield callout at first and then switch to sugar. I figured you would know since you're tapped in. I was just like, what are we going on with Andrew Garfield? No one seems to know.

I guess it was just a joke that missed, but I love the Sugar Sean O'Malley callout. Two rising stars. I don't think Sugar's next in line for the title, so it makes sense. Okay, so if we were looking at Kalshi right now, where would you put the percentages of Peyton Talbot getting Sugar Shaw next?

Ooh, I think he's got a 50-50 shot. I think it's a fight that people would be excited about. The problem that he's looking at is it seems like Sean O'Malley might be next in line for the title opportunity after this, right? And that fights in three weeks? Yeah, the timing might not work out. But if he, if, let's say something. I was thinking that. If Marab, he's not going to get it.

Sorry, sorry. If Marab wins, it puts another fight on the line, and then maybe you do do something like that. I mean, could he get like a Corey Sandhagen, like Corey versus Peyton Talbot? I'm down for something like that, but 50-50, at least. He's a huge star. People really connect with him, and the performances that he put on against Sohudo and Figuero, it's hard to deny that he deserves a top fight. And by the way, you're 100% right.

If Marab wins, I could actually see them doing it. It makes all the sense of the world. If Jan wins, it's got to be Jan versus Sean O'Malley, right? Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, he has the win over Yon right now. He's a star. He deserves it. Yon is the best case scenario for Sean O'Malley.

Very impressive, considering his last fight, in December had the time off, was frustrated, wasn't getting a fight. Absolutely, I mean, just annihilated Davidson Figuero out there. And Figuero, still hasn't quite found his footing at 135, too big for 125. So a tough loss for the former champion in the flyweight division. Other great performances, Esteban Riebovich, what a fight. There was a lot of bad blood there between King Green and Esteban. King Green showing up with Rampage Jackson in his corner, a rare appearance by the now 24-7.

streamer Rampage Jackson. Esteban, four-fight winning streak for King Green. It always kind of feels like he'll go on one of these streaks, and then something like this will happen. We do remember back in July, that was a close one that he won. I thought a little bit controversially, but what do you think of Esteban here with the win? Unbelievable, and this is the type of name you need on your resume, right?

And not only that, I think King Green is a very difficult puzzle to solve. It's why he's able to go on some of these win streaks, because if you're not ready for that style where the hands are down and he's just throwing things from all angles, it can be very frustrating. Esteban is an all-action, walk-forward, throw shots type of guy. The fact that he was able to finish it and knock down King Green that many times,

extremely impressive. Yeah. What a win for him, especially given all the stuff that was happening leading up to this fight. What a win for Roberto Soldich, the former two-division KSW champion, coming over finally,

four years, perhaps too late, but finally coming over to the UFC and getting a win in his UFC debut against a man who said he was unfamiliar with his work going into this fight, Chaos Williams, and in the first round, it was looking a little dicey for Robocop, but then he figured it out what you think of the debut. Yeah, I mean, it was looking very dicey.

With a guy like Chaos Williams who can hit with that much power, I was starting to get worried, but man, those last two rounds, he turned it on and it felt like that KSW champion that we were hoping for him to come over, because he was absolutely beating the hell out of Chaos Williams. Really, the only thing you can say is speak to Chaos Williams' toughness over the last two rounds. It was one-way traffic the whole time.

He had him hurt several times, and it really proved that he was. he belongs in the UFC and I'm excited to see where he goes from here. Honestly, this card was a lot of fun. Like first fight of the main card and this was on CBS, first ever UFC event to have the entire main card air on CBS. Remember back in 2008 if you were around back then, Prudential Center, James Thompson, Kimbo Slice,

that was historic. Now we just kind of throw these things away. But this was a big deal for the company. And Roman Coppilov knocks out a Tima Goteer in that first fight. We were watching here with all these people and I asked everyone who's picking Roman Coppilov. Only four said they were picking him. Shout out to those individuals.

They're still very happy. I bought all their drinks for the rest of the night. What about Roman, who also said afterwards that he was surprised that he knocked out a Tiba Gautier. I'm shocked by that result. Yeah, Gautier is somebody who I think a lot of people were high on. There was the performance two ago where everybody was like, ooh, there's something a little dicey here.

He gets back on track, and then we see this. He's playing a dangerous game. He's a guy who's going very aggressively for knockouts in the early parts of fights. And when you play a game like that against Roman Coppilov, you really do leave yourself open for exactly what happened tonight. I think Atiba Gautier is still a prospect that people should look out for. I think he will get back on track. But this was a learning experience for him.

We could talk about this whole card for a long time. We will do that on Monday. Before we go, though, G. Anthony Wint, 20-something second knockout. Once again, this guy is on a roll. Alex Hernandez with the big win over our. RDA, a lot of great performances on the prelims. Anyone you want to shout out before we go?

Even all Rodriguez. Up and coming flyway, man, he is nasty. Those digs of the body was unbelievable. But yeah, shout out to Anthony Wint. Well, Kim for UFC 333. Just keep it rolling. How many can we get in before 20-26 is over with this guy? He's in there for 20 seconds every time he goes out.

And over on the boxing side of things, Ben Whitaker, by the way, in Birmingham getting a win. But he'll pass the test with flying colors. But pick up that W. We'll see if he gets Dimitri Bivel. next. You wanted to say something. We have to shout out Pinas. He absolutely obliterated him. Like

incredible prospect. Another guy who like went, you look at it and just expect to go in there and starch people. I actually think Damien Pinos may be what people were expecting out of Atiba Goti. We're writing him off already? I'm not saying we're writing him off. I'm saying they're like

just like otherworldly power absolutely just killing people. I think that's what Damien Pinos is going to be. Card of the year. We said it all week. It was going to be the card. Said it all week, and if you listened to us, you believed it. And if you listened to us when we told you to come here to one-for-one, courtesy of our good friends over Al-Kalshi, you probably had a great time. So the next time, listen to these people.

So the next time we tell you to come to one of these, you better do it. This has been amazing. We appreciate everyone for coming out, hanging out, talking a lot of Knicks fans here, which made my night extra special. It has been a lot of fun, and we will be back on Monday to break this all down. properly. So until then, for Rick G.C. For this entire great spot here in New York City and these great people here, we say, peace. We're out of here. Breaking news, Frankie, we got the final main event of 2026 UFC 335. It will be headlined by Charles Olivera versus Diego Lopez for the

BMF title at 155 pounds. Co-main event, five-round fight. It's the return of Alex Pereira Poiton at heavyweight against Sergei Pavlovich and also announced for that card December 12th in Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena, Bo Nickel versus Joe Pfeiffer at 185. Very interesting. Pfehr going from Izzy Adasania to Bo Nical, interesting in its own right. We're here at one-for-one in New York City.

had a watch party for UFC 332, courtesy of our friends over at Kalshi. Shout out to them. Use the code on Crown if you sign up. Look at these people here one more time. Shout out to these people. Yeah. And they are excited about UFC 335. The main event is a BMF title fight.

It's Diego Lopez versus Charles Oliva. Yay or nay, do you like it? Yeah, are you kidding me? The fight itself, Diego Lopez going up to 155. It feels like he is the guy to put in a BMF fight. He's always in bangers. He's always in wars. He's got an unbelievable chin and going against the guy like Charles Olivera.

If you're not excited for this, you're not a fight fan. They love Diego Lopez. Third title fight for the UFC and I think his last four fights. And why wouldn't you? Like every time he fights, he brings it. I also think it's one of those that can't miss because where Max Holloway was deficient in the grappling against Charles Olavera, I think Diego Lopez will have answers for that.

So even if Charles wants to grapple, I think it could be a lot of fun to grapple against Diego Lopez. And if they want to throw hands, I think those guys are well. equipped for it. So I think it's a can't miss. Imperfect BMF title fight. Was there anyone else that you thought might be more worthy than Diego because he's moving up to 155? Or are you

totally cool with this? Are you very happy? Man, for BMF, like we already saw it with Max. I'm running through the list in my head. Armand needs an actual title shot. I want to see Ilya versus Patty. Honestly, I love the idea of not only Diego going up to 155, but him also fighting for BMF. And you think he stays there?

Like, do you think this is it for him at 145? I think so. I think when we see these guys go up at these more lower weight classes, they typically stay there. I think that's what will happen for Diego. It's a new fight, but if you were looking on Kalshi, who would be the favorite in your opinion? Oh, that's tough. Because of Diego coming up, I think you have to give the credit and respect to Charles. I also think he's a little more clean with the technique, although he leaves himself open.

And as far as the grappling goes, he's the greatest submission artist we've ever seen. So I think he's a little bit better in each of the areas compared to Diego. But man, the toughness of Diego is the thing that you can't count out. We've seen him in absolute wars. We see him against Volcanowski. We see him in that fight against John Silva, where it looked like all hope was lost and he turns it around. I think it's going to be close, but I do lean to our trials.

The people know how I feel about the BMF title, so I don't need to belabor that point. But considering how the last BMF title fight went, does it feel a little less prestigious in your eyes? I know you're a big fan, but does it feel like the luster has been lost a little bit? Yeah, I mean, you know it's silver over everything. over here. But in all honesty, I think with each fight since UFC, what was it, 300, with Holloway and Gehji, it diminishes a little bit each time because it doesn't live up to that.

A 25-minute grapple fest last time out is going to hurt the name of it. I think this is a good fight to get it back into the good graces with the fans. All right, so we had a watch party with the fans, and let's see if they're listening. This microphone is not playing to the crowd, but I think they're listening. And so I'll say one name and they'll cheer based on who they think is going to win and let's see who the pop is louder for. So if I say Charles O'Levara, that's pretty damn loud. Diego Lopez. Okay, a unanimous decision for Charles O'Olavera. Let's see how it plays out. Now, co-main event, in my opinion, is even more interesting. That's the return of Alex Pereira at heavyweight against Sergei Pavlovich. If you read the tea leaves online, it seemed like they

were pointing in this direction after Pereira didn't get the title fight at Madison Square Garden in November. I'm a little bit worried about Pereira at heavyweight against someone as big as Pavlovich. Do you agree with that sentiment? I agree with that, but I'm just worried about Alex Perr at heavyweight, period, right? This is a different game. He does not, if you look at Sergei Pavlovich and you look at Alex Perrier, there's one that's clearly a big heavyweight who's muscular and in shape,

and then there's one who, in his previous fight did not look like he belonged at heavyweight. I will say, style-wise, though, this is a favorable matchup for Alex Perrier as opposed to to Cyrilgan, right? Cyril, somebody who's elusive, who's able to move. I think Sarajei Pavlovich can be got in the same way that Alex Pereira can be got. He's getting a coin flip here. And if the power translates from light heavyweight up to heavyweight, it's a good matchup for him.

If it doesn't, he's in some real trouble. How do you feel it plays out? Yeah, I mean, this is it. This is the test for Alex Pereira. I mean, you're going up against one of the biggest guys in the division with the most power. The dude can knock out anybody in the first round. If he ends up getting knocked out, you're 02 with two knockouts on your record at heavyweight. It's time to go back down to 205.

or maybe even call it a career. So everything is at stake for Alex Brera. I have to favor Sergei Pavlovich. He's the natural heavyweight. He's the bigger guy. He's got the power. I would love to see Poetan pull it off. But to your point, I'm a little bit worried for him.

Yes. I feel like he's best suited for light heavyweight. He wants to stay at heavyweight. They're giving him a really big and tough test at heavyweight. So let's see how it plays out. I also mentioned Joe Pfeiffer versus Bo Nickel. Fascinating fight. Was not expecting this for Joe coming off the Izzy fight.

Seems like you agree. I love this fight. I was not expecting it. It felt like Joe might be climbing toward title territory. Honestly, Joe's doing Bo a favor here. Because I think Joe was the one with all the momentum for him to go down and be like,

yeah, I'll take on Bo Nicol as a guy who is primarily a power puncher to go against a wrestler the caliber of Bo Nicol. I have a lot of respect for what Joe Pfeiffer is doing. He's making himself undeniable for a title shot. If he can get by Bo Nicol, he just beat Israel-A-Sania, I think he's knocking on the door for it. Stylistically, it's a perfect. Grappler versus striker matchup, I'm so intrigued by this. This is my favorite fight on the card already.

Is Bo Nickel ready for a Joe Pfeiffer type of fighter after what we saw the fight that you guys were at, RDR? I know he's rebounded nicely since then, but this is a bit of a step up. Yeah, I was just about say, I mean, the fact that everyone's kind of focusing on Joe Piper, you know, talking about titles, especially when we had him at the live show back in May, this year back in May, he was talking about titles and everything like that. I'm more intrigued from Bo Nichols standpoint. If he's able to win this and get past Joe Piper, he's immediately vaulted into the top five of middleweight. I don't know if he's ready or not.

Rainer de Ritter, the power that he held in that fight with the knees and everything like that, I could see Joe Pfeiffer having the same exact will implemented on Boe Nickel. It's a huge test for him, and if he can get past it, then we can start talking about Bo Nichol potentially fighting for a middleweight title.

All right, so let's see. Three fights added officially to UFC 335. Next up, of course, for the UFC, UFC 3303. That's October 24th in Abu Dhabi. fight nights in between, of course, and then 334 right here in New York City. Final thought? I was just going to say, unless I'm mistaken, I think we also got Brandon Moreno versus Charles Johnson on this card as well.

That was also announced a couple days ago, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was talking about the stuff announced tonight. Stick with me here, Rick. For God's sakes. Shout out to one for one here in New York City. Most importantly, shout out to our good friends over at Kalshi.

Shout out to all these great people who have stuck around one last time to hang with us. We appreciate you all very much. Like, subscribe, comment, do all those things and more. We will see you on Monday. Peace. Thank you guys.