UFC Fight Night 247 Live Winners and Losers, Results
One welterweight looked to climb the ladder while the other tried to remain relevant in the UFC's return to home base for a Fight Night card at the Apex.
Brazilian Gabriel Bonfim, who'd won three in a row and five of six with the company since a Contender Series debut three years ago, defended his No. 14 ranking against 35-year-old Jamaican Randy Brown, who walked the aisle for the 21st time in search of his 15th octagonal victory.
Seven other countries were represented across the other 11 bouts on the show, including a pair of prelim matchups involving ranked women at bantamweight and strawweight and another at heavyweight pitting two fighters making their official UFC debuts.
The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and delivered a list of the definitive winners and losers. Check out what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the app comments.
Winner: Provocative Punishment
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Maybe it was a quick stoppage. Maybe it was perfectly timed.
But given the volume of offense that Bonfim had already produced through just less than seven minutes, it simply seemed that an inevitable victory arrived early.
The Brazilian followed a first round of punishing calf kicks with a brutal knee to the jaw that dropped Brown to his back and made him appear helpless enough to draw a hook from referee Mark Smith at 1:40 of the second round.
Brown appeared unconscious as he fell backward toward the floor but seemed to at least somewhat regain his senses as he landed, and he immediately brought his arms in front of his face to defend against a follow-up flurry.
But Smith jumped in before the would-be onslaught arrived, prompting some protest from Brown and some maybe so/maybe not analysis from Dominick Cruz.
"I think Brown was OK, but as the ref I could understand, too. That's a tough one," he said. "If you're Mark Smith, it's tough. If I'm the fighter, I'm pi**ed. It looked worse than it actually was."
Cruz's broadcast partner, Paul Felder, agreed.
"I can't blame Randy Brown for wanting to protest," he said. "But I don't think there would have been any different result."
Winner: Older and Wiser
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What Joseph Morales couldn't get done as a 20-something, he's doing these days as an older, wiser 30-something.
The flyweight made his octagonal debut at age 22 in 2017 but washed out of the organization after two losses in three fights, then took nearly three full years off before working his way back with four straight wins on the MMA backroads.
Now 31, he returned to the UFC by capturing season 33 of The Ultimate Fighter in August and parlayed it into a Saturday date against 14-fight veteran Matt Schnell, which Morales ended with a guillotine choke submission at 2:54 of the opening round.
The tap-out followed a spectacular mat display by the winner, who took advantage of Schnell's willingness to go to the ground. Morales transitioned from a kimura on Schnell's left arm into a crucifix, then reacted to Schnell's escape by seizing his foe's neck with his right arm and forcing a surrender for the eighth time in 15 career wins.
"The gameplan was 'He shoots, I score,'" Morales said while watching a replay of the finish. "I get on top and that's it. It's amazing to see it on TV. But I've got a whole bunch of sh*t I can do in here."
Winner: Sudden Impact
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Sometimes it's a prolonged beating, sometimes a sudden impact.
Uros Medic went with the latter again in his ninth UFC appearance, winning for the second straight time by 63-second finish—this time vaporizing streaking foe Muslim Salikhov with a hard left hand and a follow-up flurry in their main card bout at welterweight.
The TKO win came just 91 days after his last one, which came against Gilbert Urbina on another Fight Night show in Las Vegas in August. It was his 10th KO/TKO finish in 12 career victories and sixth straight by that method in the UFC since a first-round beating of Mikey Gonzalez on the Contender Series in 2020.
"Everyone knows I come here to fight. The day they signed me, I said I'm never going to be disappointing, I put on a show," Medic said. "I'm knocking guys out left and right. One after another I keep stacking them. And I'm gonna come back here and put on a show every damn time."
The loss ended Salikhov's three-fight UFC win streak and kept the 41-year-old at nine octagonal wins in 14 appearances.
"I said going in that it's gonna be his kicking against my boxing and I knew I was gonna come out on top," Medic said. "It's gonna keep happening. I'm coming for everybody. I don't say no to anybody. I'll fight again right now."
Loser: Bully Bluster
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Ismael Bonfim was both a villain and a bully. And neither persona paid off for him.
The Brazilian missed the lightweight limit by five pounds at Friday's weigh-in, then faded quickly after a violent start and was ultimately pummeled into TKO oblivion by unbeaten underdog Chris Padilla in their main card grudge match.
Bonfim, whose younger brother was watching from the locker room, was effective in the first round and had Padilla in some trouble at the end of the session after reversing a clinch along the fence and connecting with hard strikes.
But Padilla's methodical, consistent approach continued into Round 2 and it paid dividends as Bonfim sagged to the floor following another prolonged tie-up along the fence in which Padilla connected with several elbows and knees.
A series of hard left-handed ground strikes ended it, drawing a rescue from Smith at 4:30 and giving Padilla his fourth straight UFC win as a betting B-side.
"Bonfim has a very bullying approach and as soon as the bullying stops, there's nothing left," Cruz said. "He broke him."
Winner: British Aggression
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You like offense? Christian Leroy Duncan gave you offense.
The powerful Englishman combined his typically athletic and dynamic approach with blunt force trauma against Brazilian middleweight Marco Tulio, putting him to sleep with a brutal right hand at 3:20 of the second round of their main card opener.
Now 6-2 in the UFC and a winner in three straight fights, Duncan secured the 10th KO of a five-year professional career with a sequence that started with a precise connection on a spinning right back fist.
Tulio buckled and reeled backward after the blow, and was an open target for a subsequent jab, right hand combination that sent him sagging face-first to the mat, where Duncan landed one final ground shot before referee Mark Smith intervened.
"I saw him drop and I saw him lose a step, so I had to put it on him and put him away," said Duncan, who called for a top 15 opponent and a spot on a 2026 card in London. "I'm developing. I'm evolving at a fast rate. I'm refining my skill set. I'm gonna be a problem here. One hundred percent, this was most definitely the statement I wanted to make."
Tie: American Exceptionalism
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One American suggested wrestling and pushing a frenetic pace were his paths to prelim victory, but another used those strategies to get it done.
Washington's Ricky Simon and California's got mixed results in their back-to-back bouts, with Simon dropping a competitive but unanimous decision to Brazil's Raoni Barcelos at bantamweight while Jamall Emmers gassed out and ultimately outpointed Filipino import Hyder Amil in the feature bout at featherweight.
It was a second straight victory and fifth in nine octagonal bouts for Emmers, 36, who came in as a narrow underdog but withstood his foe's frenetic striking in the first round to wear him down over the final two while landing a career-best seven takedowns and compiling better than eight minutes in positional control time.
Simon, meanwhile, was on the wrong end of the only takedown in his fight against Barcelos and on the low side of an 82-67 margin in significant strikes. The loss ended the pre-fight favorite's two-fight win streak and dropped him to 10-6 in 16 UFC appearances.
"I envisioned exactly what just happened," Emmers said. "Every position I could be in, bad, dominant, I saw myself winning in every position."
Loser: Riveting Rankings
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It's not a good sign when the analyst is throwing shade.
But that's what Cruz was driven to in the second of two desultory women's bouts on the prelim card, when ranked bantamweights Mayra Bueno Silva and Jacqueline Cavalcanti spent most of 15 minutes flicking inconsequential punches and kicks toward one another until Cavalcanti was rewarded with a unanimous decision.
"It's really important to let it all hang out and put on a show," Cruz said during Round 2 of the three-rounder. "Right now, it looks like they're both playing it safe. If you're not breathing heavy, you're not trying."
The corner teams echoed the sentiments between rounds, and it was hardly an entertaining encore to the earlier women's bout, which ended with 15th-ranked strawweight Denise Gomes winning a unanimous nod over No. 13 Tecia Pennington.
Gomes landed 66 significant strikes and converted three of 10 takedown attempts in her victory, compared to Cavalcanti's 91 significant strikes and a combined zero takedowns in four attempts for her and Bueno Silva as No. 11 defeated No. 10 at 135 pounds.
Cavalcanti earned 30-27 wins on two scorecards and 29-28 on the other, while Gomes was a shutout winner (30-27) across all three cards against Pennington.
Winner: Changing Course
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Josh Hokit couldn't get much done as a fullback/tight end on the NFL level, but he might have himself a heavyweight future in the octagonal ranks.
On the search for a new competitive outlet after he was waived by both the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers in 2022, the 27-year-old turned to MMA and has now reeled off seven straight victories after a punch-filled 56-second erasure of jiu-jitsu ace Max Gimenis in the official UFC curtain-raiser for both fighters.
He reached the promotion after a Contender Series win in August and had an elaborate post-fight routine planned this time around, donning a head scarf and sunglasses for a rhyming rap before finishing with a definitive callout of another streaking big man.
"I already stopped two Brazilians. I'm looking for a third," he said. "Valter Walker, you absolutely suck."
Walker, the brother of long-time light heavyweight fixture Johnny Walker, has won four straight fights—all by first-round heel hook submissions.
"(Hokit) looked powerful, he looked fast, he looked ready," Cruz said. "This guy is dangerous."
Winner: Emotional Violence
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Competitively speaking, Daniel Marcos treated Miles Johns like a rag doll.
And then, just moments after a vicious streak that saw him choke the bantamweight into unconsciousness and flip his limp body away as he climbed to his feet to celebrate, Marcos neared tears as he recalled where he'd come from after a first career loss in May.
"Last time, after the last fight, I fell into deep darkness," said Marcos, referring to a decision against Montel Jackson that spoiled an 17-0 record and ended a four-fight UFC run.
"A lot of people turned their backs on me. I told myself, 'I can't let that define me and I'm going to turn things around.' Don't let darkness turn off the light within you."
Against Johns, Marcos scored three takedowns on four attempts and made the last one decisive, ultimately using it to secure the rear-naked choke that ended things at 4:23 of Round 2.
It was his first career submission win after eight KOs and nine decisions.
"I'm here now," Marcos said, "and this is great."
Loser: Power of Suggestion
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Jackson McVey was prone on the mat with the left arm of catchweight opponent Zach Reese under his chin and squeezing his breath away when he heard his corner team repeatedly yelling "Don't quit. Don't quit."
But the power of suggestion can only go so far.
McVey pulled desperately at Reese's hands to break the hold but was unable to do so after several tries and ultimately tapped to the rear-naked choke at 1:38 of Round 2.
It was his second straight loss in the UFC after six straight wins elsewhere, all of which had come inside of one round. Octagonally speaking, he's 0-for-2 with submissions by armbar and choke.
For Reese, who took the fight on less than a week's notice, it was a fourth win in six completed UFC fights and came after a first round in which he was battered and cut by McVey in a Thai clinch but found success once he got things to the floor.
"He elbowed the sh*t out of me," Reese said, "but once we got to the ground I felt my advantage."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Gabriel Bonfim def. Randy Brown by KO (knee), 1:40, Round 2
Joseph Morales def. Matt Schnell by submission (guillotine choke), 2:54, Round 1
Uros Medic def. Muslim Salikhov by TKO (punch), 1:03, Round 1
Chris Padilla def. Ismael Bonfim by TKO (punches), 4:30, Round 2
Christian Leroy Duncan def. Marco Tulio by KO (punch), 3:20, Round 2
Preliminary Card
Jamall Emmers def. Hyder Amil by unanimous decision (29-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Raoni Barcelos def. Ricky Simon by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jacqueline Cavalcanti def. Mayra Bueno Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Josh Hokit def. Max Gimenis by TKO (punches), 0:56, Round 1
Denise Gomes def. Tecia Pennington by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Daniel Marcos def. Miles Johns by technical submission (rear-naked choke), 4:38, Round 2
Zachary Reese def. Jackson McVey by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:38, Round 2
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