The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 227
Six months ago, it was a co-main squash match.
Until it wasn't.
When Mexico's Alexa Grasso took out long-time flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko alongside Jon Jones' heavyweight title win at UFC 285 in early March, she set the stage for what arrived Saturday night in the very same T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Noche UFC was the company's high-profile nod to Mexican Independence Day highlighted by Grasso's initial title defense against top-ranked contender Shevchenko, who'd arrived to their first bout having lost to no one in the promotion other than Amanda Nunes.
Neither woman had fought since that initial encounter, which ended in a fourth-round submission when Shevchenko tapped out in a rear-naked choke. It was a fifth straight win for Grasso, who's still not lost since dropping a majority decision to Carla Esparza in 2019.
The B/R combat staff took in all 10 bouts plus the championship match to assemble a definitive list of the show's real winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Loser: Crunching the Numbers
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Just when you think you've got it figured out, you don't.
Though both incumbent Alexa Grasso and former champ Valentina Shevchenko thought they'd done enough to carry the flyweight title belt out of the Octagon after Saturday's main event, neither had their hand raised as a victor after their five-round rematch was scored a split-decision draw.
Both Grasso and Shevchenko earned a 48-47 nod on one scorecard, but the deciding vote cast by veteran judge Mike Bell was even at 47 after he awarded Grasso a 10-8 margin in the fifth round. Had he followed the other judges and scored it 10-9 in Grasso's favor, Shevchenko would have regained the belt.
And make no mistake, that's what Shevchenko believed she deserved.
"I think it was 3-2 on my side. But she's a Mexican fighter," Shevchenko said, alluding to the show's Mexican Independence Day theme. "I was expecting a battle, and I went through the work. In a fair competition, this would be mine."
Indeed, the B/R card had Shevchenko up three rounds to one heading into the fifth after the former champ controlled Round 1 on the mat, chased a mounted guillotine finish in the third and again got Grasso to the ground in the fourth.
The current champ earned the second round on the strength of a knockdown scored with a hard right hand and chased a finish of her own in the fifth after getting to Shevchenko's back to pursue a rear-naked choke with just more than a minute remaining.
Junichiro Kamijo gave Grasso Rounds 2, 4 and 5. Sal D'Amato gave Shevchenko Rounds 1, 3 and 4. And Bell also gave Shevchenko the first, third and fourth, but turned the tide with the two-point margin—the only one across all three scorecards—in the final round.
"I don't know what he's watching. I don't understand where he gets 10-8," analyst Dominick Cruz said. "Where's the consistency? When you look at the criteria for a 10-8 round, I don't see how (Bell) says that was it."
Grasso, for her sake, thought she won outright as well.
"I did a lot of damage. My punches were harder. So yeah, I'm the winner," she said. "I was very close (to a finish) and doing a lot of damage and trying to submit her. Yes, I did enough."
Grasso is now 8-3-1 in the UFC, while Shevchenko is 12-3-1.
"That is a scorecard," blow-by-blow man Jon Anik said, "that they'll be talking about for years to come."
Loser: Building to a Climax
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You may have expected a co-main event to deliver mayhem, simply because it was a co-main event.
If so, you came away disappointed.
The would-be slugfest between ranked welterweights Kevin Holland and Jack Della Maddalena devolved into a tedious stand-up match in which neither man seemed willing to commit to all-out offense.
As a result, it was a reed-thin decision that went Della Maddalena's way by split decision, with two judges giving him a 29-28 (two rounds to one) verdict to overrule a third judge with a 29-28 for Holland.
B/R agreed with the majority and gave Della Maddalena the first and third rounds for a 29-28 nod.
"It was pretty much exactly what I expected," the 27-year-old Australian said, talking over loud jeers from the crowd. "Thanks for the boos, I appreciate it."
It was a sixth win in six UFC tries for Della Maddalena, who arrived as the company's 14th-ranked welterweight—one spot behind Holland, who's still won more fights (12) than any fighter since he arrived to the promotion at UFC 227 five years ago.
"It's hard to tell in here. I feel like he ended up on the cage a little more, but I'm not a judge," Della Maddalena said. "F--k it. The plan was to come in defensive, use my eyes, and wait for my shots."
Winner: Regaining Teen Swagger
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Raul Rosas Jr. needed a bounce-back. Badly.
And when it came time to perform, he did so. Goodly.
The UFC's youngest fighter at just 18 years, 11 months, Rosas countered overaggressive opponent Terrence Mitchell with a quick, hard left that dumped Mitchell to the floor and prompted a ground-and-pound barrage to end their main-card bantamweight bout after just 54 seconds.
"I had to prove a point today," Rojas said. "Last fight, no excuses, so I knew I had to be better than that. I knew I had to let them hands fly, so I did."
Indeed, he'd opened his stay in the promotion with a first-round victory but lost his unbeaten record and some of his aura with a decision loss to Christian Rodriguez at UFC 287 in April.
Rosas and Mitchell got right to business and started throwing shots early in their fight up until Rosas landed the left that left Mitchell stiff-legged and tumbling backward to the floor. Rosas immediately pounced with a torrent of strikes, forced Mitchell to give up his back and continued to throw strikes until referee Mark Smith intervened.
"The kid fought angry tonight," Daniel Cormier said. "He was mad about what happened last time.
"He took his back and tried to put his head through the mat."
Rosas ended his chat with Cormier and proved he'd regained his swagger, openly campaigning for a performance bonus from UFC boss Dana White.
"Ain't no combat better than that," he said, "and these custom suits ain't cheap."
Winner: Appeasing the Crowd
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Several words could be used to describe Loopy Godinez's means of defeating Elise Reed in Saturday's prelim finale, but few would be any better than "mauling."
The Mexican strawweight is billed as a boxer in terms of technique, but she was equal or superior to her opponent in every possible manner, landing several impactful blows with her fists and repeatedly getting the fight to the floor where she was able to continually chase submissions.
She ultimately got one at 3:38 of the second round, getting Reed to tap in a rear-naked choke.
"You guys are amazing," she said to a raucous crowd. "I can hear you guys in here. I f--king love it."
Godinez landed 14 strikes, scored two takedowns and was credited with five submission attempts while racking up better than three minutes of control time in the first round.
She continued the dominance in the second as well, landing 23 strikes, adding three more takedowns, and getting her finish after an eight-punch combination yielded a double-leg slam and allowed the ninth-fight UFC veteran to lock in the decisive choke that drew a tap and an intervention from Herb Dean.
It was a productive kickoff to Godinez's training partnership with flyweight champ Alexa Grasso.
"I have the dream team," she said. "I am so happy, and I feel better than ever. Every day this is it. We train like this. We fight like this."
Loser: Backing the Refs
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Dominick Cruz felt no need to hold back.
Moments after referee Chris Tognoni stopped a prelim fight between Edgar Chairez and Daniel Lacerda when he believed Lacerda had been put to sleep in a standing guillotine choke—only to see Lacerda instantly indicate he was still fully in possession of his senses—it was on.
The two-time bantamweight champion went on the offensive from his position on the ESPN broadcast table, suggesting Tognoni stopped it because he wasn't qualified to watch high-level grappling.
"You've got to know what you're looking at," Cruz said. "They don't know what they're looking at. That's the bottom line. The refs don't know what grappling is."
The mistake was remedied after video review and the submission for Chairez was changed to a no-decision, but Cruz was in no mood to stand down.
"As fighters we get held accountable when we make mistakes," he said. "They need to be held accountable just like we are. It sucks for the fighters who go through camp to be in shape and the ref doesn't know what he's looking at."
Lacerda scored a single-leg takedown midway through the round and went for another one a minute later, only to find Chairez's left arm wrapped around his throat as they grappled along the fence.
Tognoni leaned in as Lacerda kept his arm flexed while fighting the choke, but the instant his arm dropped to his side—and even as Cruz said, "He better not stop this," from the table—the referee pulled the plug.
Lacerda chatted with Tognoni and a state athletic commission official to discuss the result, moments before the change was made official by announcer Bruce Buffer.
"You've got to feel bad for Edgar Chairez, too," Jon Anik said, "but justice was served."
Winner: Post-Fight Performance
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The fight was forgettable. The finish was memorable.
But early-prelim winner Charlie Campbell saved his best work for the moments just after he'd stopped returning veteran Alex Reyes with a violent first-round TKO.
You might even say it was "Mmm, Mmm, Good."
Campbell summoned Daniel Cormier to the center of the cage following the victory and asked the former two-division champ what he'd thought of Campbell's boxing.
But just as the fighter-turned-analyst began to answer, Campbell channeled his inner Dwayne Johnson, pulled the mic away and yelled "It doesn't matter what you think," mimicking the old-school promo style of the now box-office moneymaker.
Cormier smiled, took back the mic and told his bold interviewee, "You know I like a good WWE reference, so I'm gonna let you live." In fact, broadcast partner Jon Anik suggested Cormier had been moments short of "unleashing his inner Junkyard Dog" on Campbell.
The win came in the New Yorker's UFC debut after a loss on Dana White's Contender Series in 2022, but he sounded like a seasoned veteran in demanding a post-fight bonus.
"I don't care if I'm the second fight on the prelims," he said, "that's 50K, baby."
Winner: Backing Early Chalk
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Jon Anik called it "total domination."
But while Josefine Knutsson did win every moment of every round against badly overmatched strawweight opponent Marnic Mann, it wasn't enough to dazzle the fans.
A dissatisfied crowd at a still largely empty T-Mobile Arena greeted the Swede with boos in the final seconds of the three-round prelim opener, but it didn't dampen her enthusiasm.
"Oh, my god, it's been so great," she said. "Being a part of UFC is a dream come true."
The 27-year-old alumnus of Dana White's Contender Series was the biggest betting favorite on the night's early portion and strafed Mann with strikes in the stand-up position, prompting Mann to continually seek an exit by taking the fight to the mat.
It was little different competition-wise, however, as Knutsson established mount in each round and was chasing a rear-naked choke finish when the final horn sounded.
She swept the cards with scores of 30-24, 30-25 and 30-27.
"It was important (to get a finish). But I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself," she said. "I felt a little bit tired in the wrestling, but I was like 'F--k it, I'm gonna do the best I can.'"
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Alexa Grasso drew with Valentina Shevchenko by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 47-47)
Jack Della Maddalena def. Kevin Holland by unanimous decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Raul Rosas Jr. def. Terrence Mitchell by TKO (punches), 0:54, Round 1
Daniel Zellhuber def. Christos Giagos by submission (anaconda choke), 3:26, Round 2
Kyle Nelson def. Fernando Padilla by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
Loopy Godinez def. Elise Reed by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:38, Round 2
Roman Kopylov def. Josh Fremd by TKO (punch), 4:44, Round 2
Edgar Chairez vs. Daniel Lacerda declared a no decision (video review), 3:47, Round 1
Tracy Cortez def. Jasmine Jasudavicius by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Charlie Campbell def. Alex Reyes by TKO (punches), 3:38, Round 1
Josefine Knutsson def. Marnic Mann by unanimous decision (30-24, 30-25, 30-27)
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