The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 218
Forget the faint of heart.
This weekend's UFC Fight Night show was not for the easily drowsy.
Punches, kicks and elbows were flying in Las Vegas long after the Saturday night sun went down on the East Coast. In fact, none of the five main-card bouts had begun at the Apex facility until well after Sunday morning arrived.
Heavyweights Derrick Lewis and Serghei Spivac didn't hit the Octagon for their scheduled five-round main event until 3:10 a.m. ET, topping an internationally flavored 11-bout event that included fighters from three continents and 12 countries.
It actually had been 12 bouts and 13 countries before flyweight Mandy Bohm was removed due to illness from a match with Ji Yeon Kim.
It was also historic from the broadcasting perspective thanks to the presence of Laura Sanko at the announce table alongside John Gooden and Michael Bisping, marking the first time in modern UFC history that a woman played a cage-side commentary/analysis role.
The geographically intrepid and certainly sleep-deprived B/R combat team was in place from start to finish for the overnight marathon to deliver a comprehensive list of the event's winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of two of your own in the comments section.
Loser: Resurrecting the 'Beast'
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All of a sudden, it seems that Lewis is a spent force.
The company's all-time leader in heavyweight KOs was a highly-ranked contender and secured an interim title shot as recently as August 2021 before a stoppage loss to Cyril Gane.
Since then, in spite of gym changes and promises of reinvention, well...not so much.
The 37-year-old Texan rebounded with a KO of surging slugger Chris Daukaus four months later, but hasn't looked nearly as threatening since while being quickly finished by the likes of Tai Tuivasa (KO 2), Sergei Pavlovich (KO 1) and now Spivac (SUB 1).
The 12th-ranked Moldovan "Polar Bear" had won five of six upon arrival to Saturday's heavyweight main event and quickly got to work against Lewis, getting his seventh-ranked foe to the floor with a hip toss and ultimately grinding him to a nub with six takedowns.
The last of those six returns to the mat allowed Spivac to maintain top position on a frustrated and exhausted Lewis, isolating his right arm and locking in the arm triangle choke that prompted a tap-out surrender at 3:05 of the first.
It was his first loss in nine Las Vegas fights.
Lewis dejectedly turned away as ring announcer Joe Martinez read the official verdict while an ebullient Spivac declared his intention to wreak havoc on the division.
"Derrick Lewis is great," he said. "He's a legend. I love him. But today this is my time. The Polar Bear is here. The Polar Bear is coming. Give me somebody from the top five."
Indeed, the 28-year-old improved to 7-3 in the Octagon and now has victories over two fighters, Lewis and Tai Tuivasa, ranked ahead of him.
And he made no bones about calling out another foe who'll soon fight for the heavyweight championship.
"I want Jon Jones," he said. "Jon Jones, I respect you so much. I'm sorry, bro, but I'm coming."
Winner: Earning a Pet
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Devin Clark is a particularly maddening fighter to watch.
He packs 205 pounds of muscle onto a 6' frame and consistently promises pre-fight menace thanks to a "Brown Bear" nickname and legs the size of tree trunks.
Then he gets to the Octagon and becomes an inconsistent force.
The 32-year-old South Dakotan, one of just three fighters from his state to reach the UFC, had split 14 fights in the company since making his debut on a Fight Night in 2016.
By the time he climbed the stairs to meet Da Woon Jung in Saturday's co-main at light heavyweight, though, there was a little something extra on the line.
"Before I left home my wife said I could get a puppy if I won this fight," Clark said. "So I fought my a-- off to get a Golden Retriever."
It wasn't pretty by any measure.
But, thanks to a competitive but unanimous decision, the dog is having his day.
Clark wound up earning 30-27 nods on all three scorecards thanks to some generous judges—B/R had it 2-1 in his favor but could easily have gone the other direction—who clearly valued his aggressive if not particularly violent approach for much of the fight.
In fact, Clark's most impressive stretch came in the final 60 seconds after loud exhortations from his corner team.
He was able to create enough distance and land several punches to Jung's head and body as he languished against the cage, and secured the last of his three takedowns after diving in, securing his foe's waist and spinning him to the floor.
"That was a tough fight," Clark said. "It was better. But we've got to get better, too. There was a lot of stuff I was trying and a lot of it wasn't working and it tired me out."
Loser: Making a Heavyweight Statement
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Marcin Tybura has never lost in Las Vegas.
And the 37-year-old heavyweight is 11-6 in the Octagon since his arrival to the company in 2016.
But even in the aftermath of a three-round decision over Blagoy Ivanov in a main-card matchup of the 10th- and 15th-ranked fighters in the big-boy division, it's probably no stretch to suggest neither the aforementioned Gane nor Jones are losing much sleep.
The 6'3", 249-pounder is an immense physical specimen but found himself outworked throughout the initial five minutes against a shorter, thicker foe who plodded forward and controlled space thanks to more active hands.
Tybura upped his work rate in the second round and began scoring well with leg and body kicks from distance, then began the third round with a takedown and wound up keeping the bout on the floor for the entire closing session as his frustrated opponent tired.
"I thought he would be much harder to take down," Tybura said. "We had to do it because we didn't know what the scorecards would look like."
As it turned out, he swept all three rounds on one scorecard and won two of three rounds on two others, boosting his overall record to 24-7 in a career reaching back to 2011.
B/R agreed with the majority and gave the winner a 2-1 rounds margin.
Still, he seems a longshot to successfully contend with the dynamic likes of Gane and Jones, who'll fight at UFC 285 to claim the title vacated by Francis Ngannou's recent departure.
Fittingly, when pressed by Bisping for a post-fight callout, Tybura turned down a chance to make a vigorous statement and simply replied "whomever is there."
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Winner: Repping Asia
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It was a good night to be an Asian fight fan.
A half-dozen prelim matches yielded five winners from that region of the world, including two Japan-based fighters and three more from South Korea.
No one seized the global spotlight better, or at least quicker, than Rinya Nakamura, the Japanese bantamweight who stopped countryman Toshiomi Kazama in just 33 seconds.
The victory came in the 135-pound finale of the Road to UFC series, an event in which Asian prospects compete to earn promotional contracts.
Kazama looked to press the action early but his aggression was tempered by a quicker, sharper Nakamura, who knocked his foe down with a right hand to begin the decisive sequence and ultimately secure his sixth finish in seven career victories.
"The pressure was heavy. So heavy," he said. "I've been dreaming for 15 years about being in this Octagon."
Nakamura's celebratory was shared by flyweight Tatsuro Taira, who improved to 3-0 in the company with his own first-round stoppage of Jesus Aguilar.
Meanwhile, South Korea's wins came from JunYong Park (first-round submission), HyunSung Park (third-round submission) and JeongYeong Lee (split decision), with the latter two coming in their respective Road to UFC finals at featherweight and flyweight.
India's Anshul Jubli rounded out both the show's early portion and the Road to UFC quartet with a second-round TKO over Jeka Saragih at lightweight.
The win made him just the second Indian fighter to earn a UFC deal.
Winner: Justifying the Chalk
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Sometimes the guys who make the odds have the answers.
OK, maybe more than just sometimes.
Regardless, it's clear that Taira was the biggest pre-fight favorite on the show for a reason.
The precocious 23-year-old—born 27 days into the 21st century—made a heady -1150 billing worthwhile with a first-round armbar submission victory over Aguilar.
But it wasn't easy.
Aguilar was making his official UFC debut following a successful turn on Dana White's Contender Series and charged across the mat to instantly drop his foe with a low kick before immediately chasing a finish via guillotine choke.
Taira didn't panic and soon got back to his feet, freed himself from the hold and began pursuing his own offense. He quickly gained a positional advantage and got into mount while pursuing a triangle choke, eventually translating the advantage to the armbar that yielded a surrender at 4:20.
"I'm relieved," he said. "I heard the corner saying 'No need to rush. Slow down.' So I was able to do that. I was able to talk with myself but I was able to hear the corner as well.
It was win No. 13 overall and win No. 3 in the Octagon for Taira, who started off with a scorecard victory last May before getting another via armbar in October.
"It doesn't really matter if I get in the rankings or not," he said, "but I do feel I can win against the (ranked fighters)."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Serghei Spivac def. Derrick Lewis by submission (triangle choke), 3:05, Round 1
Devin Clark def. Da Woon Jung by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Marcin Tybura def. Blagoy Ivanov by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Dooho Choi drew with Kyle Nelson (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
Adam Fugitt def. Yusaku Kinoshita by TKO (strikes), 4:36, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Anshul Jubli def. Jeka Saragih by KO/TKO (elbows), 3:44, Round 2
JeongYeong Lee def. Yi Zha by split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
Rinya Nakamura def. Toshiomi Kazama (punch), 0:33, Round 1
HyunSung Park def. SeungGuk Choi by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:11, Round 3
Junyong Park def. Denis Tiuliulin by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:05, Round 1
Tatsuro Taira def. Jesus Aguilar by submission (triangle choke with armbar), 4:20, Round 1
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