UFC on ESPN 71 Live Winners and Losers, Results
The UFC was back on home turf.
After a holiday hiatus that was followed by three weeks of putting up the production tent in Nashville, New Orleans and Abu Dhabi, the mixed martial arts conglomerate returned to the Apex in Las Vegas for a 12-bout Fight Night extravaganza.
Of course, extravaganza was a flexible term given the fact that only three of the 24 fighters on the show had rankings numbers next to their names.
Nevertheless, headlining the show was 25-year-old Japanese flyweight Tatsuro Taira, who was ranked sixth at 125 pounds and participated in his third straight main event when he faced HyunSung Park.
Taira had won six straight with four finishes before dropping a split verdict to Brandon Royval atop a Fight Night show last October. Park, meanwhile, was 10-0 as a pro and 3-0 in the UFC with two wins by rear-naked choke and another by TKO.
The B/R combat team was in place for the whole thing and delivered a definitive real-time list of its winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Loser: Too Much, Too Soon
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It’s official: There are levels to this.
Park was on deck for a bout with a skidding contender on a three-fight losing streak when plans changed and he was brought in for a short-notice date with Taira, who’d won his first six in the UFC and was only beaten by split decision by a recent title challenger.
So, it’s not entirely shocking that the Korean seemed in over his head in the first all-Asian main event in the company’s history—which ended when he tapped out to a Taira face crank at 1:06 of the second round.
“It was absolute dominance from start to finish,” analyst Michael Bisping said. “(Taira) dropped him in the first round, continued to out-grapple him. It was a very, very dominant display of mixed martial arts.”
That could be an understatement, given the hard right hand that dropped Park at the one-minute mark of the opening round and kept him grounded through the session’s end as Taira tried to get in position for a finishing sequence. He resumed the chase at the start of the second, immediately charging in for a body lock and slamming Park for a takedown.
It wasn’t long before his left arm snaked around his opponent’s chin, falling short of a choke but wrenching the stricken man’s face to the point of surrender.
“I wanted to show the striking but also the grappling as well,” said Taira, who called for the winner of an expected title fight between champion Alexandre Pantoja and challenger Joshua Van. “I got what I wanted.”
Winner: Damaging Dissension
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There’s something about a little enmity.
Lightweights Mateusz Rebecki and Chris Duncan weren’t shy about stating their distaste for one another during fight week, with the Polish slugger suggesting his Scottish rival—and former gym teammate—had built his reputation feasting on the easier training partners.
Put that together alongside the fact that both fighters were trying to string together victories, and you set the stage for a sure-fire bonus candidate that left both men gasping for breath and stained in blood from ghastly facial damage.
Duncan, still leaking from a cut under his left eye, was awarded a unanimous decision with two 29-28 scorecards and another that was 30-27 in his favor.
“I f’ing love this game. I f’ing love this game,” he said. “You can’t beat me. I don’t quit. This is nothing. What I went through as a youngster, that’s pain. This is superficial.”
The seven-year pro and three-year UFC competitor was overwhelmed by Rebecki’s consistent pressure in the opening round but used movement to set up sharp counters in the second round and fought off the front foot in the third round. He left an ugly knot on Rebecki’s forehead after a clash of heads then opened a jagged gash on his right eyebrow with a hard step-in elbow.
Rebecki bumped fists with Duncan at the final horn before immediately collapsing to all fours in his corner. The two briefly embraced just before the decision was announced and shook hands one last time after the scores were made official.
“Everyone wants to know what I would have done if I didn’t win,” Duncan said. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Winner: Exceeding Expectation
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Nearly everyone expected a good fight. Not as many thought it’d be so one-sided.
Argentine import Esteban Ribovics arrived as a -250 favorite and fought like it for most of his 15 minutes with Elves Brener, initiating more exchanges and dishing out more damage on the way to a unanimous decision in a three-round banger at lightweight.
It was almost exclusively a stand-up fight between the two, each of whom were 3-2 in five UFC fights and coming off a loss in their most recent appearances. Together, they combined to throw 561 significant strikes and land 277 of them, and Ribovics was able to defend each of his opponent’s nine takedown attempts.
He landed 120 shots to Brener’s head alongside 17 to the body and 16 to the legs, and had 62 seconds of positional control time, too.
“It’s overwhelming offense,” analyst Dominick Cruz said.
The judges concurred, giving him 30-27 shutouts on two cards while the third was 29-28, or two rounds to one, in his favor. B/R agreed, giving him all three rounds.
“You see the wild warrior, the savage that I am every time I step into the octagon,” Ribovics said. “It’s the Argentine in me. I have more balls and more heart than any other fighter.”
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Winner: Birthday Rally
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Just when Neil Magny looked every bit a soon-to-be 38-year-old, he didn’t.
The “Haitian Sensation” has been steadily climbing the all-time UFC ranks in all sorts of stats but given his two-fight skid entering Saturday—and five losses in eight fights since the summer of 2022—he’d drifted perilously close to the gatekeeper status he despises.
That may have been the impetus behind a quick change in Round 2 of his main-card scrap with Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, who was on the painful end of a pair of standing knees before crumbling to the mat and taking a series of ground strikes that prompted referee Mark Smith to end matters at 4:39.
It was the 23rd win in Magny’s now-35-fight stay in the UFC, which began with a decision over Jon Manley at UFC 157 way back in 2013. His total fights are tied for sixth on the company’s all-time list, his wins are now in a four-way tie for second, and his total fight time climbed past Clay Guida into the top five.
And because he’ll celebrate a birthday on Sunday, it was particularly joyous.
“I never dreamed I’d get this far but we’re not done yet. Keep pushing. Keep grinding,” he said. “I knew as the fight went on, I’d start pulling away and take the lead. It’s been the longest break in my career in terms of getting wins, so it’s especially nice.”
Loser: Backing It Up
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One thing’s for sure: Danny Silva has a world-class taunt game.
The American featherweight stuck out his chin, gestured with his hands and let out the occasional primal scream over the course of 15 minutes with Kevin Vallejos in the main card opener, but when it came to winning the fight, not so much.
The 28-year-old was on the short end of every statistical measure through three rounds against his Argentine foe, including total strikes (70-90), significant strikes (67-89), takedowns (1-2) and control time (0:22-1:14), so it was hardly surprising that his hand was not raised following the reveal of one 29-28 scorecard and two 30-27s.
Nevertheless, he had his hand up before the result was made official and seemed at least visibly, if not actually, surprised that it hadn’t gone his way.
Instead, he fell to 10-2 as a pro and lost for the first time in a UFC-affiliated cage after two Contender Series victories in 2023 and follow-up Fight Night wins in 2024 and earlier this year.
Vallejos is now 16-1 as a pro and 2-0 in the UFC following his own Contender Series win.
Loser: Underwhelming Underdogs
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You’ve got to speculate to accumulate. But sometimes, it’s just not your night.
Unlike other shows—like the recent UFC 318 pay per view in Louisiana, for example—on which underdogs won as often (or more) than they lost, the early half of Saturday’s 12-pack from the Apex was all about the chalk, and it was never all that close.
Beyond a not-as-close-as-it-was-scored decision win for -270 strawweight Piera Rodriguez in the opener, none of other five favorites experienced anything beyond a nominal challenge, with two unanimous decisions and three finishes for the pre-fight A-sides.
Middleweight Tresean Gore was a +190 proposition heading into a date with Rodolfo Vieira and won a round on one scorecard across a desultory three-rounder, while another 185-pounder, Nick Klein, won the first round against Andrey Pulyaev as a +110 underdog before gassing out and being stopped by the lanky Russian only 91 seconds into Round 2.
Underdog wins in all six fights would have yielded a cool $1,995 profit, but their losses instead resulted in a $600 downturn. Meanwhile, bets on all six favorites required a $2,760 advance risk but would up yielding a $600 uptick.
Winner: Hurtful Words
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It didn’t look at all pleasant.
But the more Bisping described the body kick from Rinya Nakamura that folded bantamweight foe Nathan Fletcher just 62 seconds into their prelim feature, the worse the sympathy pains got.
“That was a perfectly executed kick from the southpaw position to the liver,” the ex-middleweight champ said. “You have got no choice (but to fall). That would have felt like a knife right in the side of your liver. Just a disgusting pain.”
The kick came as Nakamura, with his back just a few feet off the fence, countered Fletcher’s pressure by whipping out his left leg and digging the big toe on his left foot into the right side of Fletcher’s abdomen. The Englishman instantly recoiled, dropped his right elbow as a reflex and fell backward to the canvas, inviting the five quick ground shots that prompted referee Kerry Hatley to intervene.
It was Nakamura’s 10th win in 11 pro fights and fourth in five tries in the UFC, where he’d begun with three straight triumphs before losing a decision in January.
“I saw that (Fletcher’s) stomach was open a little bit,” he said. “So I tried just lifting my leg, and let’s go.”
Winner: Narrative Change
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Don’t judge a book by its cover. And don’t judge a fight by its first round.
Pulyaev was bullied, battered and taken down multiple times through the initial five minutes of his prelim date with the uber-aggressive Klein, but once the horn sounded, the narrative changed.
Klein’s gas tank was clearly compromised as the middle session began and Pulyaev stood his ground, ultimately lashing Klein’s midriff with a hard kick that set the stage for the follow-up flurry that ended the fight at 1:31 of the second.
“That was pure power in that kick. What a great choice from that southpaw stance. It took away all (Klein’s) options,” Cruz said. “Each round is its own fight to me because they make the adjustments minute by minute.”
Pulyaev agreed, saying he expected Klein’s frenetic start and was ready to capitalize. “I expected his wrestling. We waited until he got tired,” he said. “My defense was much better in this fight. I showed what I can do.”
Winner: Prohibitive Prelim
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Both Austin Bashi and Rafael Estevam were prohibitive prelim favorites, and both won their fights with little significant resistance.
But one of the two—Bashi, who arrived as a -900 pick—was far more memorable.
The 23-year-old was a Contender Series winner last year before dropping a decision in his official UFC debut in January, but he was both successful and dominant on Saturday while registering a first-round finish of late-stage sub John Yannis.
The win was Bashi’s 14th in 15 total fights and the finish, this time by rear-naked choke, was his sixth in a row since the beginning of 2023.
“I’ve been working for this moment my entire life. We fixed the mistakes. I got the win. It feels amazing,” he said. “He took the fight on Monday, so I didn’t know what his style was. I came in hands up, chin down, and went for it.”
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Tatsuro Taira def. HyunSung Park by submission (face crank), 1:06, Round 2
Chris Duncan def. Mateusz Rebecki by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Esteban Ribovics def. Elves Brener by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Karol Rosa def. Nora Cornolle by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Neil Magny def. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos by TKO (punches), 4:39, Round 2
Kevin Vallejos def. Danny Silva by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
Rinya Nakamura def. Nathan Fletcher by TKO (body kick), 1:02, Round 1
Rodolfo Vieira def. Tresean Gore by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Andrey Pulyaev def. Nick Klein by TKO (body kick), 1:31, Round 2
Austin Bashi def. John Yannis by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:39, Round 1
Rafael Estevam def. Felipe Bunes by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Piera Rodriguez def. Ketlen Souza by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
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