Preview: UFC 332 ‘Silva vs. Wang’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Utah for UFC 332, a solid enough card badly in need of a main event. The headliner, which sees Natalia Silva take on Cong Wang for the freshly vacant women’s flyweight title, is stretched thin as a main event, but the rest of the main card makes a lot of sense. Top bantamweight prospect Payton Talbott gets his next test against former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo, and the rest of this slate is matched for action; King Green and Esteban Ribovics should have a barnburner, knockout artist Roberto Soldic finally makes his UFC debut, and dynamic middleweight Ateba Abega Gautier looks for his biggest win yet against Roman Kopylov.

UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship
Natalia Silva (20-5-1) vs. Cong Wang (10-1)

Odds: Silva (-205), Wang (+170)

Cong Wang challenges Natalia Silva for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title

This fight is stretched thin in almost every promotional aspect, as it doesn’t feel much like a headliner or title fight and might not even be all that exciting, but it’s at least an intellectually interesting fight that should tell us something about whoever winds up as the UFC’s new flyweight champion.

Natalia Silva’s UFC debut in 2022 was a bit of an afterthought — especially coming off a two-and-a-half-year layoff — but once she hit the Octagon, it was quickly apparent that she would be a problem for most of the division; Jasmine Jasudavicius was an interesting prospect in her own right, and Silva made her look absolutely glacial while outmaneuvering her over three rounds.

Silva has a case as one of the fastest fighters in the UFC relative to her division, which has made up for some bad process; she confusingly attempted to wrestle with the much stronger Tereza Bleda before finding a knockout, and she generally leaves a lot of defensive openings that could be taken advantage of — provided someone can actually catch up to her level of speed.

Silva finally clinched her title shot with a January win over Rose Namajunas, but that fight might have hurt her stock in the process; she was still clearly the faster fighter, but Namajunas was both long enough to hang with her at range and patient enough not to charge into Silva’s offense. The result was a tepid affair in which Silva looked reticent to lead against someone who could control range and cause some damage; that nearly resulted in a decision loss to Namajunas but also figured to be absolutely poisonous against the technical mastery of champion Valentina Shevchenko.

But with Shevchenko becoming the latest UFC champion to vacate her title, that point is moot for now — though Cong Wang could still be a tricky opponent. Unlike Silva, Wang was far from an obvious title contender when this fight was announced, but she’s an obvious talent with a built-in backstory for a Shevchenko fight if she wins the belt, as the two have a kickboxing rivalry stemming from a Wang win shortly before Shevchenko’s 2015 UFC debut. The UFC picked Wang up in 2024, and she immediately looked like a natural who figured to be fast-tracked to a title fight, as she kept up an active schedule before disaster struck; a matchup against Gabriella Fernandes was clearly going her way until she got stunned with a counter and choked out on the mat, handing her her first mixed martial arts defeat in a massive upset.

But “The Joker” has thankfully learned from the loss in terms of actually respecting what her opponents have to offer, and after a few performances that were a bit too patient, Wang is now balancing violence and thoughtfulness as effectively as ever. Even if she’s being rushed a bit into this title fight, Wang has looked every bit of a contender in her two 2026 performances; she balanced defensive wrestling and offensive output masterfully against Eduarda Moura, then slowly broke down Tracy Cortez on the feet for three rounds of a one-sided fight.



With the UFC matching Wang against wrestlers in her last few fights, it’s hard to know exactly how she’ll take on the challenge of Silva’s speedy striking — though the leg kicks she used to chop down Cortez should be quite an effective weapon. There’s also the curiosity around this being each woman’s first five-round fight; Silva hasn’t seemed to tire herself out with such a movement-heavy approach, but that’s typically an inefficient style that causes most fighters to fade in the championship rounds.

It wouldn’t necessarily be a shock if Silva coasts to a win here through her speed or experience advantages, but Wang seems worth the flier here; she figures to be steady for five rounds and understands range well enough that she could frustrate Silva much like Namajunas did. And while Silva can wrestle a bit, Wang has shown enough in terms of her initial takedown defense that it doesn’t stand out as a clear path to victory. It might take her a while to get the ball rolling in terms of momentum, but the pick is Wang via decision.

Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims

Bantamweights
Deiveson Figueiredo (25-7-1) vs. Payton Talbott (11-1)

Odds: Talbott (-625), Figueiredo (+455)

This isn’t the most tantalizing matchup for Payton Talbott as he works his way up the bantamweight ladder, but it’s at least nice to see one of the UFC’s best prospects in action for his long-overdue first fight of 2026. The hype train quickly got behind the oddly charismatic Talbott upon his 2023 UFC debut, though there were some clear issues to be worked out even as he racked up some dynamic wins; Talbott showed an excellent understanding of the pace and pressure that wins fights in this era of mixed martial arts but also had little regard for anything his opponents threw his way, making his fights a bit tougher than they needed to be at times.

Still, it was a shock when those worries came home to roost at the beginning of 2025 against Raoni Barcelos, who outwrestled Talbott to score one of the year’s biggest upsets. But if there was any concern that Talbott’s defensive awareness would become a fatal flaw, it took him all of five months to correct those issues; Felipe Lima typically finds a lot of success through his own dogged wrestling and scrambling, and Talbott shut that entire part of his game down in a clear decision win.

Talbott’s focus on defensive wrestling against Lima limited his striking output a bit, but again, Talbott’s next performance saw him correct any potential issues from his last one; given a big step up against Henry Cejudo, Talbott synthesized his wrestling and striking in a manner that led to a surprising extended beatdown of the former two-division champ. Talbott seems ready to get thrown into the fire and given a big fight, and this matchup against former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo does somewhat qualify, even if it’s only a half-step up or so in terms of competition. Along with Cejudo, Figueiredo is one of the men who helped save the flyweight division; in the Brazilian’s case, that was thanks to a 2020 “Fighter of the Year” campaign that saw him win the 125-pound title, rack up three finishes and then end the year with a draw against Brandon Moreno that was also one of the best fights of the year.

That was the first of a four-fight series with Moreno that helped raise the profile of the division and both fighters, even though neither lasted among the flyweight elite in the long run; Moreno slowed down a bit after so many brutal and taxing fights, and once Figueiredo lost their fourth fight, he decided to move up to bantamweight.

Figueiredo’s game has always been built around his fight-changing power, often taking a low-output approach that still resulted in some violent knockouts and submissions whenever “Deus da Guerra” decided to spring into action. But while Figueiredo is still clearly a hard hitter at 135 pounds, he’s no longer a one-shot knockout artist; combined with some waning athleticism, that has reduced Figueiredo’s margin for error to the point that he now loses most of his high-level fights.

To his credit, he’s done well to adjust enough to still remain competitive most of the time, mostly in the form of leaning on some underrated wrestling to rack up control time — but even that’s part of his greater issue, which is struggling to keep up with the pace of modern mixed martial arts now that he can no longer end a fight in an instant.

That seems particularly poisonous against Talbott, who embodies the structure of the modern game while also clearly improving from fight to fight; it might take a bit for the younger prospect to feel things out, but this should all be one-way traffic once he starts to build some momentum. The pick is Talbott via second-round stoppage.

Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims

Lightweights
King Green (36-17-1, 1 N/C) vs. Esteban Ribovics (16-3)

Odds: Ribovics (-250), Green (+205)

King Green’s unexpected resurgence has been one of the best stories of 2026, though it meets its toughest test here. It seemed for a good while that Green’s UFC career would be defined by bad luck; coming over from Strikeforce in 2013, Green quickly shot up the lightweight ranks before a series of injuries derailed him for about half a decade — and making matters worse, judges refused to reward Green’s counter-heavy style on the scorecards during the few times he was actually able to make it to the cage.

But Green finally found some consistent health in 2020, which was perfect timing; the pandemic left the UFC scrambling to fill out cards, and Green quickly regained his profile by stepping in as often as possible to win some exciting fights. By the time the UFC opened back up to crowds, Green was clearly a made man as a fan favorite, making him a welcome addition to any card for the next few years.

But it seemed like Green’s UFC 300 win over Jim Miller would be his last hurrah; next came quick losses to Paddy Pimblett and Mauricio Ruffy, and perhaps even more concerning was a flat split decision win over Lance Gibson in the type of matchup that Green would have dominated in his prime.

But that’s only made Green’s 2026 run all the nicer to see, as he’s run through Daniel Zellhuber, Jeremy Stephens and Terrance McKinney, all flawed but dangerous fighters, giving the 40-year-old some surprising momentum into this bout against Esteban Ribovics. Argentina’s Ribovics was anonymous until gutting out a 2024 Fight of the Year contender against Zellhuber, which spurred the UFC to lean on him as a high-profile action fighter. Top-tier athletes on the Argentine scene often go untested, and Ribovics has kept that mindset going even against UFC-level competition; Ribovics leans on his durability to fight with pressure that can often be quite artless, going shot for shot in the hopes that he can land something harder than whatever he eats in return.

So far, that has generally worked, with Ribovics mashing his way through a lot of wars of attrition while only struggling against wrestlers, but Green is a fascinating next test; the longtime veteran can wrestle a bit as needed, but he also stands out as Ribovics’ slickest opponent to date in terms of evading strikes and landing some big counters in return.

This could be rough for Ribovics at points, but the lean is still that his combination of youth and durability can win this in the long run, particularly whenever Green miscalculates one of his evasions; the pick is Ribovics via second-round knockout.

Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims

Welterweights
Roberto Soldic (21-4, 1 N/C) vs. Kalinn Williams (16-5)

Odds: Soldic (-325), Williams (+260)

It’s better late than never, as Roberto Soldic makes his long-overdue UFC debut. “Robocop” has long been one of the best European fighters outside the UFC, making a name for himself as a two-division champion in Poland’s KSW; that includes a two-fight series with eventual UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis at welterweight, which saw du Plessis score a knockout in the first fight, only for Soldic to return the favor six months later.

After three more years with KSW, Soldic made the jump to One Championship, where his career stalled out for various reasons; beyond the typical lack of frequent fights that One offers nowadays, Soldic’s three fights under its banner included both a no contest and a surprising knockout loss.

So there is the question of whether the UFC has waited too long to pick up Soldic, particularly since his approach could be particularly boom or bust; he’s mostly a kickboxer built around single strikes, and while he has both technical expertise and a ton of power, there’s a solid chance he can lose fights that come down to either durability or output. To that end, Kalinn “Khaos” Williams makes for a solid first test to see exactly where Soldic stands, as he could prove to be a sneakily difficult matchup for the Croatian newcomer. Williams didn’t particularly stand out as a regional talent ahead of his 2020 UFC debut, but it quickly became apparent that his knockout power was a standout skill, as he starched Alex Morono and Abdul Razak Alhassan in a combined 57 seconds.

Williams’ approach is fairly basic swing-and-cling fare, so there’s not a lot to worry about outside of that massive power — but Williams clearly hits hard enough that he can end the fight after just one mistake by his opponent. Add in that Williams has proven shockingly durable, and there’s a ton of risk here for Soldic in his first UFC showing; this fight is likely to take place entirely on the feet, and the UFC newcomer is the only one of these two men who has been knocked out.

But the lean is that Soldic can at least fight this smartly enough to land the harder shots and stay out of major trouble, even if this won’t be a major announcement of his arrival; the pick is Soldic via decision.

Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims

Middleweights
Ateba Abega Gautier (11-1) vs. Roman Kopylov (15-5)

Odds: Gautier (-218), Kopylov (+180)

One of the UFC’s top middleweight prospects gets his first big step up here. Born in Cameroon and training in England, Ateba Abega Gautier popped as an obvious talent in his 2024 win on the Contender Series, and the UFC did well to bring him along slowly; “The Storm” spent his first year under the UFC banner getting matched up with some of the lower lights of the 185-pound roster, scoring a series of quick wins accordingly.

But the impressive bit of business was that, even in these short fights, Gautier typically let the knockout happen in the run of play rather than chasing the finish, which only came through further in his first fight of 2026 against Andrey Pulyaev. The fight was obviously booked as another quick and brutal Gautier win and nearly wound up as such, but after Pulyaev survived the early going and started to feel his way into the fight, Gautier just stayed steady and coasted to a clear decision without much trouble.

Gautier still obviously needs to add more tools to his bag, as he ran out of ideas to take out Pulyaev after the early going, but for someone who could just rely on his horsepower, it was quite nice to see him stay poised and not run himself into trouble, instead applying consistent but thoughtful pressure and taking opportunities as they presented themselves. After similarly taking his time to build toward a knockout win over Osman Diaz, Gautier now gets a shot at the fringes of the UFC’s middleweight rankings against Roman Kopylov, by far his toughest test to date.

Kopylov was impressive on the Russian circuit as a volume-heavy striker, which made the rough start to his UFC career particularly surprising; visa issues and injuries kept him out of action for the better part of three years, and Kopylov’s few showings made him look quite underpowered at the UFC level, preventing him from building toward much success.

But Kopylov eventually learned how to sit down on his punches a bit, and combined with some more confidence, he was able to turn things around to quite a surprising degree, winning six of his seven fights during a run from 2022 to 2025.

Unfortunately, that led to Kopylov being turned back from the top tiers of middleweight in quite definitive fashion, as he was badly outgunned by the horsepower of Paulo Costa and Gregory Rodrigues — and that seemed to nearly derail Kopylov’s career, as he looked a bit rough early before rediscovering his nerve and staging a comeback win against Marco Tulio this past May.

But even though this is Gautier’s big test, it does feel like Kopylov is also getting thrown back into the fire a bit, as he once again faces a much more powerful athlete who should get him moving backward and into a much less effective performance; the pick is Gautier via decision.

Jump To »
Silva vs. Wang
Figueiredo vs. Talbott
Green vs. Ribovics
Soldic vs. Williams
Gautier vs. Kopylov
The Prelims