Ranking the 5 Best Fights for UFC 302

We're now less than two weeks out from UFC 302, and anticipation is high. That's no surprise, given the fights on the bill.

The card, set for June 1 in Newark, New Jersey, will be topped by a lightweight title fight, with champion Islam Makhachev looking for the third defense of his reign against fan-favorite finisher Dustin Poirier.

Co-headlining honors for the card will go to a middleweight showdown, with former champion Sean Strickland looking to rebound from a hotly debated title loss to Dricus Du Plessis against the hulking Paulo Costa.

Earlier on the card, welterweight contender Kevin Holland will take a trip back up to middleweight to face Poland's Michal Oleksiejczuk. That will be preceded by a heavyweight bout between Jailton Almeida, who will be looking to rebound from a hype-deflating loss to Curtis Blaydes, and Moldovan "King Kong" Alexandr Romanov.

The undercard, finally, is packed with appearances from rising contenders, popular veterans and debuting prospects.

From top to bottom, there are many fights on the bill that look like they could steal the show. Here are the five that fans should be most excited for.

Heading into 2024, Brazil's Jailton Almeida was arguably the hottest contender in the heavyweight division. He had won 15 straight fights, including recent UFC victories over Shamil Abdurakhimov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Derrick Lewis. It seemed like a matter of time before he was fighting for the title—whether it was the interim belt held by Tom Aspinall, or the undisputed championship held by Jon Jones.

Then Almeida ran into Curtis Blaydes, suffering a second-round TKO loss that completely derailed his momentum.

On the UFC 302 main card, Almeida will look to get back on track against Moldova's Alexandr Romanov.

Romanov was once considered a serious contender himself. In early 2022, he was a perfect 16-0. At that point, he also looked like he was on a way to a title shot, but then he suffered back-to-back stoppage losses to Marcin Tybura and Alexander Volkov. He's since rebounded with a decision win over Blagoy Ivanov but still hasn't gotten his momentum back up.

By the end of UFC 302, we should know a lot more about what the future holds for Almeida and Romanov. One will step back into title contention; the other might leave that conversation forever. Given that both men are proven finishers, with 22 combined submissions, this one should also be over before the final bell.

Kevin Holland is one of the most unpredictable, entertaining fighters in the UFC but has struggled to get the results he wants of late. He's lost four of his last six fights, including decision defeats against Michael Page and Jack Della Maddalena in his last two fights.

Barring a short-notice catchweight fight with Khamzat Chimaev, all of those fights were at welterweight. At UFC 302, Holland will hike up to middleweight in search of better results.

It won't be his first time competing in the weight class. He actually started his UFC career at middleweight and scored some of the best wins of his career in the division, most notably a wild, first-round TKO over Brazilian legend Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza.

Holland will be welcomed back to middleweight by a former light heavyweight in Michal Oleksiejczuk. Oleksiejczuk is riding a stoppage loss to Michel Pereira but has scored 14 of his 19 career victories by knockout or TKO. He's a tough test for the former welterweight, and no matter who wins, it's hard to imagine it will be by decision.

Alex Pereira's journey to the UFC middleweight title was supercharged by his two kickboxing wins over Israel Adesanya, who held the division's title at the time.

History may soon repeat itself.

On the UFC 302 undercard, we'll witness the promotional debut of Brazil's Cesar Almeida, who holds the distinction of being one of the few men to defeat Pereira in kickboxing.

Pereira and Almeida actually met three times as kickboxers. Pereira won their first and final fights, but Almeida picked up a win of his own in the middle bout of their rivalry.

As of 2024, he has left the kickboxing ring behind and is now 5-0 in MMA.

The Brazilian will make his UFC debut against Russia's Roman Kopylov, who seems like the perfect guy to welcome him to the Octagon. The Russian is riding a submission loss to Anthony Hernandez, but had won four straight fights before that and is an excellent striker himself, with 11 knockout wins on his resume.

If Almeida can beat Kopylov, who is hovering just outside the top 15, he is bound to get another huge fight, and if he keeps winning, he might soon be challenging for the division's title. He could even earn himself an MMA rematch with Pereira—though the former middleweight champ has since become a champion up at light heavyweight.

A lot of things need to happen for any of that to occur, but it's not like there isn't precedent for such things. Just look at Pereira.

After losing the UFC middleweight title with a controversial decision against Dricus Du Plessis earlier this year, Sean Strickland said he wouldn't accept any fight but a rematch with the new champ. Despite that talk, he ultimately bent the knee to the UFC and accepted a fight with former title challenger Paulo Costa, ranked seventh in the weight class.

This is Strickland's chance to put himself right back in the title conversation with a big win, and there's plenty of reason to believe he can do it. With suffocating, high-volume boxing, he seems to have the perfect style to overwhelm and maybe even stop Costa at UFC 302.

Costa has struggled both with results and frequency of fights in recent years, going 1-3 in four fights since 2020. In his latest fight, he lost a wide decision to former champ Robert Whittaker.

However, all of his recent losses have come against top-flight opposition, and as he proved in his 2022 win over Luke Rockhold, he is still capable of putting serious beatings on people. If Strickland is anything less than perfect in this fight, he risks a massive loss that would send him reeling out of title contention.

If the UFC's official pound-for-pound rankings are to be believed, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is the best fighter in the world right now.

Makhachev, a protege of Khabib Nurmagomedov, has won 13 straight fights. Earlier highlights of that run include wins over Arman Tsarukyan, Drew Dober, Dan Hooker and Bobby Green, but his last three wins are where things really got impressive.

First, he won the vacant lightweight belt with a submission victory over lightweight legend Charles Oliveira. Then, he defended it with back-to-back defeats of former featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski: first, a hard-fought decision, then a first-round knockout under short-notice circumstances.

Having said that, Makhachev still has surprisingly few wins over fighters currently ranked in the lightweight top 10: just Tsarukyan and Oliveira. He will look to score another win over a proven top-10 talent in the UFC 302 main event, when he takes on Dustin Poirier.

Poirier has twice tried and failed to win the lightweight title, but heading into UFC 302, he looks as capable as ever of pulling it off. While he suffered a knockout loss to Justin Gaethje last year, he has since rebounded with a thrilling knockout win over Benoit Saint Denis, which served as a reminder of how dangerous he is when he's on the feet.

He will be at a distinct grappling disadvantage if Makhachev can take him down but stands a good chance of knocking the champ out for as long as this one is upright.

For Makhachev, it's a fight that will help legitimize him as the true king of the lightweights. For Poirier, it's a chance to cap off a Hall of Fame-worthy career with the one thing that has eluded him so far: an undisputed UFC title. For the fans, it's a gargantuan fight that should be a nail-biter for as long as it lasts.