UFC 315 Live Winners and Losers, Results
Timing, it's been said, is everything.
And when the UFC declared its intention several months ago to hold a pay-per-view show in Montreal, there was no way to know the tension that would develop between Canada and the U.S. for things having nothing to do with combat sports.
But after some enmity crept through at the weigh-ins on Friday, indications were that the atmosphere at the Bell Centre would be electric as the promotion put on a 12-bout show headlined by a pair of championship contests.
Incumbents Belal Muhammad and Valentina Shevchenko sought to defend titles at welterweight and flyweight, respectively, while a crackling matchup at welterweight between Canadian Mike Malott and American Charles Radtke—whose fight-week exchanges have been particularly tense—highlighted the preliminary card.
The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and deliver a real-time list of the show's definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Winner: And New
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The popular pre-fight narrative, given the betting odds and expert picks, suggested an uber-aggressive Muhammad would eventually work through Della Maddalena’s striking and get him to the mat enough to grind his way to a successful first title defense.
But the challenger didn’t buy it.
Instead, the gutty Australian pieced Muhammad up from distance, kept his composure when the champ surged, and ultimately got up every time he was put down on the way to a strong stretch drive that clinched a unanimous decision win and a shiny new title belt.
“It’s exactly how I thought it would feel,” Della Maddalena said. “It feels f**king good.”
Two judges gave it to the 28-year-old by slim 48-47 margins while the third agreed with the B/R W/L card and saw it 49-46 in his favor.
"The kid fought a wonderful fight," analyst Daniel Cormier said. "It was very evident from the start of the fight that he had a wonderful game plan."
Della Maddalena landed 200 strikes to Muhammad’s 155, defended six of nine takedown tries, and left the favorite bloodied and wobbling late in the fifth round. He landed more overall strikes in each of the five rounds and had Muhammad bleeding badly in addition to being noticeably hurt in a compellingly violent finale.
“He brings the pressure, so I had to be smart on my feet,” Della Maddalena said. “Coming in there against someone like him, I had to be smart. I couldn’t spend too much time on my back. When I did, I waited until I could get my energy back and made a move.
“I wanted to take him out of there. I was gunning for a late finish. But he’s tough to put away.”
Winner: Champion 2.0
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Some prefer the flash. Others fancy the grind.
Which means there was plenty to like for anyone watching the flyweight title match between Shevchenko and Fiorot in Saturday’s co-main event.
In the end, it was the former that won out as the champion began her second reign with a narrow but unanimous decision over her streaking second-ranked challenger.
All three judges scored 48-47, or three rounds to two, for the champion.
“I was expecting a very hard fight. She’s a hard opponent and a good striker,” Shevchenko said. “Everything I wanted to do getting ready for the fight, I was able to do.”
Indeed, Shevchenko was particularly effective from distance using superior hand speed and movement to offset her slower, less fluid opponent, who suffered a nose injury in the opening round and bled for most of the rest of the fight.
Fiorot, meanwhile, was intermittently able to get in close and pin Shevchenko against the fence, where she scored with inside punches and knees, established more than seven minutes of control time and scored one takedown in 12 overall attempts.
But it was the incumbent who controlled things more often, scoring a knockdown with a hard right hand at the end of the fourth round and appearing fresher down the stretch.
“It’s like the numbers are nothing,” Shevchenko said. “It’s more important how you feel physically and mentally.”
Loser: Fantastic Finish
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Jose Aldo was not the fighter he used to be.
The former two-time featherweight champion is 38 years old, had been a pro since his teenage years, and arrived Saturday having only gone 7-7 since his sudden KO loss to Conor McGregor in 2015.
And since his role in the promotion had devolved into a gatekeeper for rising prospects, each appearance had the potential to be an emotional downer.
That was the case in his main-card bout with Montreal-based foe Aiemann Zahabi, who left the Hall of Famer battered and bloodied with a third-round rally that clinched a decision in which all three judges gave Zahabi the final two rounds.
Afterward, Aldo, whose inability to reach the bantamweight limit prompted the bout’s late move to featherweight, dropped his gloves in the center of the cage and called it quits.
“I don’t think I have it in me anymore,” he said. “My body said no. I don’t want to go into war anymore. I just don’t have it in my heart anymore. I just can’t do it anymore.”
Aldo was effective and quicker in the opening round, but he clearly ran out of gas after chasing a finishing flurry in the third and ended the fight on his back after taking a barrage of hard elbows that cut his forehead and left him semi-conscious.
For Zahabi, it was a sixth straight win and seventh in nine UFC appearances.
“I did all the work. I accepted the fight,” he said. “I was rocked for sure (in the third round). I was a bit disoriented. But my mindset coach tells me to prepare for these situations and to win the next sequence. That’s what I did.”
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Winner: Flyweight Phenom
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The flyweight division has a new championship threat.
Fleet-footed Brazilian Natalia Silva announced her presence with technical authority in Saturday’s second main-card bout, consistently tagging ex-champ Alexa Grasso from distance and countering her foe’s aggression with quick-handed counter shots.
Grasso had arrived as the division’s top contender following three straight title fights—a win, a draw and a loss—against Shevchenko.
Silva, meanwhile, had arrived ranked fifth at 125 pounds.
The result was a narrow but correctly scored unanimous decision in which the 28-year-old earned 30-27 verdicts on the three official scorecards.
B/R’s W/L tally agreed and gave Silva all three rounds.
The win was her seventh in a row since reaching the UFC in 2022 and her second straight over a former belt-holder after a decision over Jessica Andrade last summer.
“Dana,” Silva said to UFC boss Dana White at cage-side, “that belt’s gonna look beautiful on me.”
Her constant lateral movement frustrated the slower but more powerful Grasso, who was consistently drawn forward and countered with stinging shots as Silva exited.
“This is honestly Natalia Silva at her best,” analyst Dominick Cruz said. “She’s won fights before but not at this level. It’s not heavy kill shots, but the technique is something to watch.”
Winner: Brave in the Attempt
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Kyle Prepolec wasn’t supposed to beat Benoît Saint Denis, and he didn’t.
But even if the 35-year-old never makes another UFC appearance, he’ll at least have earned an “admirable in defeat” medal thanks to a gutty effort as a short-notice foe.
The Ontario native hadn’t appeared with the promotion since a winless two-fight run in 2019 and he was a predictably prohibitive underdog against Saint Denis. Still, he managed to endure a series of submission attempts in the opening round and landed a few hard strikes of his own before ultimately succumbing to an arm triangle at 2:35 of the second.
Saint Denis, who’s now finished each of his six UFC wins, was scheduled to face Joel Alvarez but got a new opponent when Alvarez sustained an injury. Prepolec had gone 4-1 in regional promotions since losing a decision to Austin Hubbard on a Fight Night show.
Prepolec landed a hard left hand that wobbled Saint Denis early in the second and landed a few body shots as his foe brought the fight to the fence, but a series of hard elbows from the Frenchman soon led to a takedown and the isolation of Prepolec’s right arm for the submission maneuver.
“I knew that he was experienced, and he had been in very tough fights,” Saint Denis said. “But you want to have some fun with the Montreal people and bring some violence, so that is what I did.”
Winner: Homeland Hero
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Malott had already promised a skills clinic.
But after stars-and-stripes-waving opponent Radtke began promising vengeance after Canadian fans booed the U.S. national anthem during the NHL's Four Nations Face-Off tournament in February, the proud Ontario native had a little more motivation for violence.
And he delivered.
Malott earned the nod through the first round based on technique, but a hard left hook just seconds into the second round left Radtke flat on his back and vulnerable to a volley of hard ground strikes that yielded a KO win after just 26 seconds.
Moments later, as Radtke tried to regain his senses in the center of the mat, Malott was on the fence, waving the Canadian flag and pushing the volume needle into the red.
“We’re celebrating now. This is our time,” he said. “When it comes to defending this country in the octagon, know one thing, Canada, I stand on guard for thee.”
Winner: Sudden Statement
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It wasn’t supposed to be that easy.
Ninth-ranked flyweight Jasmine Jasudavicius was supposed to be in with her most difficult opponent in the form of former strawweight champ Andrade, ranked two spots above her at No. 7 at 125 pounds.
It didn’t work out that way.
Instead of a blood-and-guts struggle with her veteran Brazilian foe, the popular Canadian quickly seized a body lock, got Andrade to the floor with a hard slam and quickly took the back on the way to a rear-naked choke tap out after just 2:40 of the first round.
“I knew she was gonna be tough,” Jasudavicius said. “But I knew that if I got her down, I’d find a finish.”
Andrade had said during fight week that it would take a truck to get her down.
“I guess you can call me a truck now,” Jasudavicius said. “I’m just going for that No. 1 (contender) spot. I’m down for whoever they put in front of me.”
Loser: Moving the Needle
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Eastern Europe, stand up.
Or now that we think about it, go ahead and sit down.
A light heavyweight bout between Lithuania’s Modestas Bukauskas and Moldova’s Ion Cutelaba was billed as a would-be banger but turned out instead to be a tedious blend of two fighters whose tactical approaches from distance simply didn’t mesh.
So instead of 15 minutes of high-intensity combat, the crowd was treated to far more faking, feinting and eluding before resorting to soccer-style singing and chanting to make up for the lack of sustained action.
In fact, the biggest fan pops came on the occasions where referee Dan Miragliotta broke up tie-ups along the fence and repositioned the fighters in the center of the mat.
Eventually, for those still paying attention, Bukauskas was declared the winner by split decision thanks to chaotic scorecards in which two judges had a shutout for each fighter and the tie was broken by a 29-28 margin for Bukauskas.
Pasquale Procopio had Bukauskas by shutout and earned the ire of Cormier, who channeled pro wrestling history and labeled it a "Montreal Screwjob."
“That’s trash,” Cormier said. “That’s actually a very bad decision. Who is Pasquale? Who is Pasquale Procopio?”
Loser: Justifying the Numbers
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Navajo Stirling had all the credentials.
He came to the cage as one of the show’s biggest betting favorites and its only unbeaten fighter, having won all six of his professional bouts, including one in the UFC.
But, while he was able to secure a seventh straight victory with a decision over 33-year-old light heavyweight foe Ivan Erslan, it was hardly indicative of the pre-fight laurels.
The New Zealander telegraphed his kicks from distance and was hardly a blur when it came to hand speed, though he ultimately slogged his way to a unanimous decision win that was memorable only for a late barrage that nearly yielded a stoppage in the final minute.
Erslan survived but wound up on the short end of two 29-28 cards and another that read 29-27.
“I turned it back on after things weren’t going my way,” said Stirling, a former world kickboxing champion. “I thought he was already gone.”
Winner: Producing Under Pressure
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Marc-Andre Barriault needed a moment. And he got one.
Just in time.
The 35-year-old Quebec-born middleweight had lost three in a row, including two by first-round finishes, and acknowledged that the clock may have been ticking on his UFC career.
So, when he got to his happy place, a clinch along the fence, he leaned on his instincts and let loose with a devastating barrage of elbows and punches against Bruno Silva.
Soon after, Silva was unconscious on his way to a stretcher and an ambulance ride to Montreal General Hospital, while Barriault was atop the fence and drinking in the adulation of a home-province crowd.
“I’m speechless right now. I’ve been through so much struggle. But I think I showed tonight that I belonged in the UFC,” said Barriault, whose stoppage win was made official at 1:27 of Round 1. “Everything was on the line for me, so I just trusted my instincts and I reminded myself I can put on a good fight.”
Loser: Walking the Talk
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The UFC broadcast crew is often a hyperbolic bunch.
Regardless of a competitor’s track record, they’ll tend to find the positives and build him or her into a monster as they approach the cage for that event’s appearance.
It didn’t work for JeongYeong Lee.
The Korean was labeled a beast, and his physical strength was lauded loudly as he prepped for a matchup with short-notice Brazilian featherweight Daniel Santos.
But it didn’t last long.
In fact, after rising from a knockdown thanks to a Lee right hand about two minutes in, Santos had things mostly his own way, avoiding further damage while taking his foe to the mat six times and controlling for more than six minutes on the way to a shutout decision.
“I struggled to find the distance and I wanted to strike with him,” Santos said. “But at one point I decided to change my mindset, and I decided to wrestle with him. That was the difference.”
Loser: Early Elimination
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The early-arriving crowd got a quick KO.
That said, they probably didn’t like it.
Canadian-based bantamweight Brad Katona came to the cage with partisan fan approval and indicated his intention to rumble by refusing a pre-fight glove tap, but he was knocked stiff by a right uppercut on an attempted level change and was rescued in just 64 seconds.
The blow came from Kazakh import Bekzat Almakhan, whose trainer was not present due to visa issues and who was coming off a loss to Umar Nurmagomedov in his UFC debut.
To hear him say it, though, his run toward success has just begun.
“I was preparing for this for a very long time,” Almakhan said. “(I will return) as soon as possible. I didn’t just come here to participate. I came to be a champion.”
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Jack Della Maddalena def. Belal Muhammad by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46)
Valentina Shevchenko def. Manon Fiorot by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
Aiemann Zahabi def. Jose Aldo by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Natalia Silva def. Alexa Grasso by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Benoît Saint Denis def. Kyle Prepolec by submission (arm triangle), 2:35, Round 2
Preliminary Card
Mike Malott def. Charles Radtke by KO (punch), 0:26, Round 2
Jasmine Jasudavicius def. Jessica Andrade by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:40, Round 1
Modestas Bukauskas def. Ion Cutelaba by split decision (27-30, 30-27, 29-28)
Navajo Stirling def. Ivan Erslan by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
Early Prelims
Marc-Andre Barriault def. Bruno Silva by KO (elbows), 1:27, Round 1
Daniel Santos def. JeongYeong Lee by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Bekzat Almakhan def. Brad Katona by KO (punch), 1:04, Round 1
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