This Saturday, October 26, one of the most anticipated fights by fans of the MMA. Ilia Topuria He will defend the featherweight belt for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 308. The Hawaiian is currently the BMF championhowever, the UFC decided that this title will not be placed in play at the moment. But what is the UFC BMF title?
The acronym BMF refers to the English expression ‘Baddest Mother Fucker’which in Spanish translates to something like “the baddest guy.” The BMF belt is not an actual title, but rather an honorary championship created by the UFC.
The striking name of this title has its origins after a fight between Nate DÃaz and Anthony Pettis in August 2019. After winning, DÃaz challenged Jorge Masvidal and later at the DÃaz press conference proclaimed himself “the baddest guy in this game”. Both DÃaz and ‘GameBred’ were very high-profile fighters at that time, so the UFC decided to face them in the main event of an evening and award the winner this peculiar belt.
Thus, the first fight for the BMF belt took place in November 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York between Masvidal and DÃaz at UFC 244. In that media duel ‘GameBred’ took the victory. With Masvidal already retired, it was not until several years later when the UFC decided to put the belt back into play with a fight between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje in summer 2023. In this second fight for the BMF it was Gaethje who won the belt thanks to a brutal high-kick who knocked out ‘The Diamond’ in the second round.
Already in 2024, Gaethje defended the BMF title against Max Holloway at UFC 300 in a fight that went down in history for its spectacularity. After dominating throughout the fight, ‘Blessed’ took the victory by knocking out his rival in the final seconds of the fight. After this fight, Holloway officially became Topuria’s rival to fight for the 145 title.
Initially it was thought that the BMF would also be at play in Topuria vs. Holloway. In fact, ‘El Matador’ even demanded that he be ready to face ‘Blessed’. However, the UFC finally decided that the Hawaiian would keep this honorary title and it is still unclear who the next candidate will be.
