The Real Winners and Losers From UFC Fight Night
Sometimes, main events are 50/50 propositions.
And other times, they're showcases for a fighter looking to climb the ladder.
The heavyweight headliner atop Saturday night's UFC Fight Night show at Ibirapuera Arena in Sรฃo Paulo, Brazil, was most certainly the latter.
Brazilian hero Jailton Almeida was ranked ninth among the promotion's big men and had a chance to claim a spot in the division's upper echelon when he met former title challenger and longtime contender Derrick Lewis in a five-rounder.
No foe had lasted eight minutes with Almeida across five octagonal boutsโtwo KOs, three submissionsโsince his winning appearance on Dana White's Contender Series in 2021. Lewis, meanwhile, was one of the company's highest-profile KO artists, having stopped 14 foes with strikes in his 18 wins since debuting in 2014.
They topped a 10-bout card that included at least one Brazilian in each fight, including a co-main in which welterweight Gabriel Bonfim faced streaking Danish import Nicolas Dalby, who'd won three straight and five of six (plus a no contest) since his second UFC stint began in 2019.
The main-card opener between Rodolfo Vieira and Armen Petrosyan was canceled when Petrosyan fell ill in his locker room shortly before the fight. The catchweight prelim finale between Elves Brener and Kaynan Kruschewsky was moved to the main card in its place.
The B/R combat team took it all in and compiled a real-time list of the event's definitive 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: Finding a Finish
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It was supposed to be quick and full of action.
Instead, it was drawn out and monotonous.
The heavyweight main event between top-10 contenders Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis was a 25-minute exercise in one-sided boredom, with the Brazilian scoring early takedowns and racking up prolonged control time in every round on the way to a predictably wide unanimous decision.
The cards were 50-44, 50-44 and 50-45 in his favor.
It was a sixth straight win in the UFC for the surging Almeida, who took the powerful Lewis to the mat in the first 60 seconds of each round and kept him there for nearly every subsequent second on the way to a UFC heavyweight record of 21 minutes and 10 seconds of control time.
It was the first time Almeida, now 20-2 as a pro, had ever gone past three rounds and the first trip beyond four for Lewis, who's 18-10 in the UFC. It was also Almeida's 15th straight win overall and the first time he'd not registered a finish in a victory.
He ratcheted up the competitive radar afterward and called out Ciryl Gane, who beat Lewis in 2021 and is the top-ranked contender in the division.
"We knew that (Lewis) had heavy hands," said Almeida, who converted six of 15 takedown attempts and had four official submission attempts, though never seemed on the verge of a finish. "So that was the game plan, of course. But even when I was touched, I didn't really feel it."
Winner: Staying the Course
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Nicolas Dalby told everyone who'd listen.
He conceded he was in tough against unbeaten Brazilian welterweight Gabriel Bonfim, but he insisted he'd weather whatever storm the 26-year-old could deliver and still be there when it was over.
Still, even after it was ended it was hard for a shell-shocked crowd to believe what it had seen.
Dalby was punished on the feet and taken down to the mat during a one-sided first round and found himself horizontal and bloodied again in the first half-minute of the second.
But when he got back to his feet that time, the entire tenor of the fight changed.
In an instant, Bonfim looked disheartened that Dalby was still coming after him. And as the 38-year-old continued to deliver knees and elbows in grinding exchanges along the fence, his spirit gave out.
Dalby pounced on his fallen foe with several more ground strikes until the end came when referee Jason Herzog intervened at 4:23 of the second.
It was Bonfim's first loss in 16 pro fights and dropped him to 2-1 in the UFC, while Dalby jumped to 23-4-1 as a pro and 6-1-1 in his second octagonal stint after a 1-2-1 the first time around.
"He was a tough dude. We knew he'd come out like that," Dalby said. "But I do what I do. I turn it into a dog fight, and I get the victory. It's not that I think I'm invincible. But when my mind is set to the task, I feel like I'm unstoppable."
Winner: Calling a Shot
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Sometimes the callout is better than the fight.
That was surely the case for streaking Brazilian middleweight Caio Borralho, who earned a decision after a desultory three-rounder against Abus Magomedov before raising his game in the aftermath.
The win was Borralho's fifth in a row among the UFC's 185-pounders, which is second only to No. 2-ranked contender Dricus Du Plessis, whose name just happened to be on Borralho's mind.
"Dricus Du Plessis, you cannot run from me anymore," Borralho said.
"I want your head. And after that I'm coming for my belt."
It was a prodigious challenge for an unranked 30-year-old, but Borralho connected the dots by pointing out that Magomedov had arrived Saturday night after a loss to now-champ Sean Strickland in a Fight Night main event four months ago in Las Vegas.
It was a far closer scrap for Magomedov against Borralho, against whom he was competing well until the third round, when he appeared gassed out and eager for an exit after being hit with an elbow halfway through the session. He reeled backward toward the fence and nodded at Borralho in acknowledgement of the shot, was quickly taken to the floor and spent the rest of the round fending off ground strikes and chokes.
"This was the game plan. The tactics of Borralho are paying off," Dominick Cruz said. "He just wanted to pour it on in the third round."
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Winner: Making a Statement
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Elves Brener said he's been having trouble securing opponents.
Well, performances like Saturday's main-card opener won't help matters much.
The 26-year-old Brazilian was given UFC newbie Kaynan Kruschewsky on short notice this time around and made short work of the Dana White's Contender Series alumnus, laying him out with a single left hand to earn his ninth first-round stoppage across 16 career wins.
"There have been a lot of guys backing out," Brener said. "I don't know what the problem is."
For Kruschewsky, it was an exchange late in the fourth minute of the initial round, when Brener missed a right hand, ducked under a counter, and dropped a follow-up left on the side of Kruschewsky's head near the ear.
The stricken fighter dropped face-first to the mat and the hostilities were immediately waved off by referee Osiris Maia at 4:01 of the first.
"He set himself a high bar with his performance over the summer," blow-by=blow man Brendan Fitzgerald said. "I think he just stepped over it."
It's five straight wins overall and three in the UFC for Brener, who turned pro as an 18-year-old in 2016 and is now seeking higher-profile quarry.
"I'll fight anyone," he said. "Dana, gimme someone in the top 15."
Loser: Acting Your Age
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Angela Hill didn't look like the 38-year-old fighter.
In fact, as she wrapped up a 15 grueling minutes with local favorite Denise Gomes, the American veteran leapt forward with a flying knee, and flashed a few spinning kicks just before the final bell.
And then, with arms thrust into the air, she strutted a lap around the cage.
Because she knew, even before Bruce Buffer made it official, that she was the winner.
Buffer indeed confirmed the verdict by reading 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 scores in Hill's direction, allowing her to keep hold on her No. 12 ranking in the strawweight division and prompting her to fire a verbal shot in the direction of any rivals who might want to dance with "Overkill."
"I wanna fight 'em all man," she told Michael Bisping in their post-fight interview. "Lemos, Waterson, whoever's still on top that I need to get back. Gimme the new fighters, too. I'll fight the new dogs. I'll fight anyone. I just wanna get paid."
It was Hill's 16th career win and her 10th in the UFC, equaling a 115-pound record established by Joanna Jฤdrzejczyk and Carla Esparza. Gomes had arrived with an 8-2 record and two straight stoppage wins in the UFC, neither of which made it to eight minutes.
"I tried to use my experience against her," Hill said. "I think you could see it in there, she's gonna be a beast."
Winner: Protecting the House
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Eduarda Moura is, as they like to say at the broadcast table, a problem.
And unfortunately for prelim opponent Montserrat Ruiz, there was no solution.
A 29-year-old Brazilian making her UFC debut after a star turn on Dana White's Contender Series and eight wins on lesser circuits, Moura took Ruiz apart in every competitive fashion in the show's second bout and left her a bruised, bloodied, and beaten mess on the way to a TKO at 2:14 of Round 2.
"This is exactly what we wanted to do," Moura said. "It was a dream come true. I wanted to debut anywhere, but it was obviously very special to do it here in Brazil."
It was her ninth finish in 10 career victories, each of which has come inside of two full rounds.
Moura out-landed Ruiz on the feet, took her to the ground three times in three attempts, and battered her with ground strikes until the intervention of referee Joao Claudio Soares.
Moura did forfeit 30 percent of her purse after missing the strawweight limit by more than three pounds, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of a partisan crowd that had been disappointed by Kauรช Fernandes' split-decision loss to Marc Diakiese in the night's first bout.
Fellow Brazilians Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (Draw, MD 3), Vitor Petrino (Win, KO 2) and Denise Gomes (Loss, UD 3) had mixed results against non-domestic opponents in their own prelim spots. Each of the local fighters had entered as betting favorites and went 2-2-1.
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Jailton Almeida def. Derrick Lewis by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-45)
Nicolas Dalby def. Gabriel Bonfim by TKO (strikes), 4:23, Round 2
Rodrigo Nascimento def. Don'Tale Mayes by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Caio Borralho def. Abus Magomedov by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Elves Brener def.. Kaynan Kruschewsky by KO (strike), 4:01, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Rinat Fakhretdinov drew with Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (29-28, 28-28, 28-28)
Vitor Petrino def. Modestas Bukauskas by KO (strikes), 1:03, Round 2
Angela Hill def. Denise Gomes by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Eduarda Moura def. Montserrat Conejo Ruiz by TKO (strikes), 2:14, Round 2
Marc Diakiese def. Kauรช Fernandes by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
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