UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs. Vallejos Live Winners and Losers, Results
It was get-over night at the Apex in Las Vegas.
Rising featherweight prospect Kevin Vallejos, unbeaten in three official UFC appearances and in his last six fights overall, took a significant step toward the upper tier of the division when he met former interim title challenger Josh Emmett.
It was a first main event opportunity for the 24-year-old Argentinean, who was beaten in a Contender Series try in 2023 but returned to the show for a win a year later and had finished two of three octagonal bouts in less than seven minutes.
He was just 14 years old when Emmett debuted with the promotion in 2016 and began a run of nine wins in 11 fights through the summer of 2022.
Now 41, Emmett was choked out by Yair Rodriguez in the co-main at UFC 284 and had won just once since, most recently submitting to Youssef Zalal's armbar in a main card bout on the UFC 320 show at T-Mobile Arena last October.
B/R's combat team took in the Emmett-Vallejos bout and the ones preceding it while delivering a definitive real-time list of the night's winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Winner: Easy Excellence
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It was hard to believe it looked so easy.
But it'd be hard to describe Vallejos' coming-out party with any other word given the one-sided nature of his beatdown of the veteran contender he'd grown up watching.
"This man is a problem. He has some of the cleanest boxing you will ever see in the UFC," analyst Michael Bisping said. "That was ridiculous. That was phenomenal. The consequences of every strike he landed were dire."
The streaking prospect-turned-contender landed 42 strikes to Emmett's two, dropped him with a hard right hand during an exchange and finished him with violent follow-up precision at 3:33 of the first round of their scheduled five-rounder.
It was his fourth win in four UFC fights and 18th in 19 since he turned pro in 2021.
"I have the utmost respect for Josh Emmett. I grew up watching his brutal knockouts," Vallejos said. "We knew we could counter. He's an old dog. Same tricks. He came with the same thing and we solved it. Argentina, you're going to have a world champion."
Winner: Motivational Mojo
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Din Thomas had given all the technical advice he had.
So, with tiring flyweight Gillian Robertson on the stool after two grueling rounds against Amanda Lemos, the veteran trainer reached deep into his bag of motivational tricks.
"You've got to believe, Gillian," he said. "You can do this. But you've got to believe."
Turns out that's exactly what his pupil needed to hear.
Robertson dug into her reserves and continued the grappling momentum she'd started in Round 2, taking Lemos down 90 seconds into the third and keeping her there for the duration to escape with a narrow unanimous decision with 2-1 nods on all three cards.
She had three takedowns, more than nine minutes of control time and wound up landing 64 total strikes to Lemos' 51 while winning her fifth straight fight.
"Five wins in a row, most finishes by a woman, most submission by a woman," Robertson said, "now all I need is the belt."
Loser: Undervalued Underdog
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Andre Fili turned away in disgust and began commiserating with members of his corner team. And it was hard to blame the 35-year-old for the visible angst.
A fixture on the UFC roster since his initial appearance in 2013, Fili appeared to have done enough to begin and end the fight to overcome nearly 5-to-1 favorite Jose Miguel Delgado in their main card encounter at featherweight.
But history won't remember it that way after two official scorecards went 2-1 in Delgado's direction and gave him a split decision victory, overruling a 2-1 lean for Fili from both the dissenting judge and on the B/R scorecard.
Fili dropped Delgado with a precise counter right hand in the first round and seemed to take the third as well after fighting effectively on his front foot in the opening two minutes and scoring two takedowns in the final 30 seconds.
Nevertheless, it goes down as his seventh loss in 12 fights since his last two-fight win streak in 2019. Delgado, meanwhile, improved to 3-1 with the promotion since a Contender Series arrival in 2024.
"It was a helluva fight. I've been watching him since I was like 14 years old and it was a big thrill," Delgado said. "I'm one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet. I knew what I needed to get it done. I had to get there."
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Winner: Virtuoso Violence
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There are bigger fights in more prominent places on the card.
But you'll have to watch a lot of MMA to find one more entertaining than the brawl between newcomer Marwan Rahiki and former LFA champion Harry Hardwick.
The featherweights went back and forth repeatedly across 10 minutes of intense combat, hurting one another with punches and kicks before Hardwick was forced to surrender in his corner after the second round with what he said was a broken jaw.
Hardwick chased an early finish after seizing Rahiki's back early in the first round, but the 23-year-old Australian rallied and appeared to hurt Hardwick with a spinning kick just before the horn. The barrages continued through the second and Rahiki looked like he may have prompted the damage with a hard right-left combo midway through the session.
Blood oozed from Hardwick's wide-open mouth for the rest of the round and the wave-off came immediately after he'd told his training team about the injury in the corner.
"I wanted to get a quick knockout and get out of here," Rahiki said. "But he really made it hard for me, made me fight myself. I had to dig down deep to get another finish."
Winner: Record Irrelevance
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It's not always about the record.
Ion Cutelaba entered Saturday's main card bout with Oumar Sy as an underdog, having lost both his last fight and 10 of his 18 overall UFC appearances.
But when matched against a once-beaten foe in his fifth octagonal outing, it was far more about technique and situational awareness than a glittering win percentage.
The powerfully-built Moldovan took Sy to the floor, eluded his foe's awkward try at a leg lock submission, then pounced on one of his own in the form of a mounted guillotine that drew a quick tap at 4:24 of Round 1.
Cutelaba landed 40 strikes to Sy's five, had the fight's lone takedown and nearly 2:30 in control time before the finish, the 16th of his career in the opening round.
"We're all warriors," he said. "It does not matter what was before. It's all ahead of us."
Loser: Judging Justice
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Into every 14-bout Fight Night show, a dubious decision must fall.
Fifteenth-ranked Bruno Silva applied effective pressure, consistently kept No. 14 contender Charles Johnson on his back foot and seemed to deserve better than he got on the scorecards while dropping a split decision in a tactical main card opener.
Johnson forged narrow striking advantages in each round while winding up with a plus-9 margin after 15 minutes, but Silva landed the flashier shots and set the pace while running up nearly four minutes of control time compared to Johnson's six seconds.
Nevertheless, one judge gave Johnson two of three rounds, and another leaned his direction on all three, overruling the dissenting scorecard of 29-28 in Silva's direction.
B/R's card went with the minority and gave Silva rounds one and two.
"That mother f**ker had a hard-a*s head," Johnson said. "I knew he wasn't gonna go anywhere."
Loser: Welterweight Wherewithal
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One analyst said it was about technique.
Another said it was all strength.
Either way, it was clear the welterweight version of Chris Curtis didn't have enough of either to handle the perpetual onslaught of Myktybek Orolbai, who established a weight class record with 19 takedowns on the way to a methodical shutout decision.
The previous takedown record, 13, had stood since 2008.
Curtis, now 38, had spent much of his pre-UFC career at 170 pounds but transitioned to middleweight upon debuting with the promotion in 2021. He returned to welterweight for a split-decision defeat of Max Griffin on a Fight Night show last summer but was never a factor against Orolbai, who won for the fifth time in six octagonal tries.
"What makes Orolbai tough is that hes not just squeezing," analyst Dominick Cruz said, "he's creating space to punch and deliver damage."
Winner: Promises Kept
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Vitor Petrino and Steven Asplund made a deal going in.
The heavyweights assured one another that they'd not spend their fight flitting around the cage or grabbing and holding their way to a smothering-type victory.
Promises kept equaled fans entertained.
Indeed, the cordial rivals spent 15 minutes delivering punishment at every striking opportunity, leaving Petrino gasping for breath and Asplund a bloody mess at the end before the Brazilian was awarded a narrow but just unanimous decision.
All three judges saw it 2-1 in Petrino's favor, matching the B/R card.
"That's what heavyweights need to do," Petrino said. "We came here to deliver on the promises. I had an agreement with Steven that we were going to go for it and that's what we did."
Winner: Victorious Versatility
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So, you want to grapple, eh?
Twenty-something bantamweight Elijah Smith endured a first round against aggressive Korean export SuYoung You in which he was taken down four times, but if you think that steered him away from going to the mat in Round 2, think again.
The second-generation UFC combatant defended an early takedown attempt, then landed a two-punch combination that dropped You to the floor and provided an opening for Smith to seize his neck and prompt a tap with a rear-naked choke after just 64 seconds.
It was his 10th win in 11 pro fights and third straight since a Contender Series arrival in 2024.
"Once I started finding my flow and finding my positions, I knew that I'd get it to where I wanted to be," Smith said. "Everybody sees my explosiveness and my KOs and they question my grappling. Well, I just showed you."
Winner: Debut Devastation
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Manoel Sousa had his man ready to go. And he knew it.
So, after the Brazilian stalked prelim opponent Bolaji Oki across the cage while talking to him, he lowered the boom in the form of a crunching overhand right than left a glassy-eyed Oki flat on his back and prompted the sort of revelry only a UFC debut can bring.
The 28-year-old turned to the camera with a teary-eyed shriek and started a post-fight chat with Bisping with a "Good evening, Las Vegas!" shout after winning for the 14th time in 15 fights and following up a Contender Series debut last summer.
The official time was 4:12 of the third round.
Sousa dropped Oki with a hard right in the first but failed to secure the finish and spent much of the second in pursuit as Oki worked well from distance and was particularly effective with an accurate jab.
Sousa regained the advantage into the third, however, and Oki's cardio was clearly compromised by the time Sousa began the chatty pursuit that preceded the KO.
"That's the way you make a UFC debut," Bisping said.
Winner: Swan Song Success
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It wasn't surprising. But it was effective.
Middleweight Eryk Anders made no secret his strategy to beat fellow 38-year-old veteran Brad Tavares involved perpetual aggression and all the benefits it'd yield.
So, the former University of Alabama football player consistently moved forward, chased takedowns and hit his foe with thudding shots on the way to earning a unanimous but fair decision in the only matchup of two Americans on the entire show.
Two judges gave him two of three rounds, and one had it 3-0, matching B/R's card.
It was the 10th win in 19 official UFC results for Anders, who debuted as a pro in 2015 and reached the big leagues in 2017. He was 5-8 across 13 results from 2018 to 2023 but improved to 3-1 across four fights since the start of 2024.
Anders removed his gloves and announced his retirement after the verdict was read.
"He dropped me I dropped him. It was like an Eryk Anders brand fight," he said. "But that's it for me. I don't have the balls for this anymore."
Winner: Supernova Submission
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Attention UFC star-gazers.
The "Lady GOAT" has officially gone supernova.
A 34-year-old Brazilian with a long resume of jiu-jitsu success, Bia Mesquita made it two finishes in two UFC bouts, this time erasing once-beaten bantamweight foe Montserrat Rendon by rear-naked choke in just 127 seconds.
"I did my job put her down, finished it, well done," said Mesquita, who'd choked out Irina Alekseeva in two rounds in her October debut. "I'm ready to show who I am, why I'm the 'Lady GOAT.'"
It was never up for debate against Rendon, who was dropped in the opening minute and punished with hammer fists and elbows before giving up her back and setting up the quick finish.
"She's not trying to smother her, take her time and play it safe," Bisping said. "I love the way she fights."
Winner: Anonymous Action
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Kudos to the UFC matchmaking gurus.
Only the hardest of the hardcore fans would have recognized either Luan Lacerda or Hecher Sosa before they met on the prelim card but there's a good chance both men will get another octagonal chance after an entertaining 15-minute scrap.
Lacerda, a 33-year-old Brazilian, was effective in Round 1 with constant pressure, two takedowns and a hard right knee to Sosa's forehead, but his Spanish rival rallied in the middle session with superior pace and hard strikes that had Lacerda retreating at the horn.
That left it to the final five minutes, during which Lacerda did score two takedowns but was otherwise on the receiving end of a steady volley of sharp long-range strikes from Sosa, who got two shutout nods and one 29-28 win on the official scorecards.
B/R also had it 29-28—or two rounds to one—for Sosa, who'd arrived with a Contender Series win in September.
Loser: Riveting Rematch
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There have been some memorable trilogies in the UFC.
Piera Rodriguez vs. Sam Hughes will not be one of them.
The strawweight rivals re-engaged after a first Fight Night date in 2022 but the result didn't change as Rodriguez plodded forward, landed the flashier strikes and controlled the tie-ups on the way to another unanimous decision in Saturday's prelim opener.
All three judges had it 30-27 for the Venezuelan, who's won three straight and five of seven in the promotion while Hughes fell back to .500 (6-6) and put herself in roster-cutting jeopardy after she'd won three in a row.
B/R's card matched the official scores, giving Rodriguez all three rounds.
Rodriguez was a 29-28 winner on all three cards in the first matchup, scoring five takedowns and landing 89 overall strikes to Hughes' 78.
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Kevin Vallejos def. Josh Emmett by TKO (strikes), 3:33, Round 1
Gillian Robertson def. Amanda Lemos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jose Miguel Delgado def. Andre Fili by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Marwan Rahiki def. Harry Hardwick by TKO (injury), 5:00, Round 2
Ion Cutelaba def. Oumar Sy by submission (guillotine), 4:24, Round 1
Charles Johnson def. Bruno Silva by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
Myktybek Orolbai def. Chris Curtis by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Vitor Petrino def. Steven Asplund by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Elijah Smith def. SuYoung You by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:04, Round 2
Manoel Sousa def. Bolaji Oki by KO (punch), 4:12, Round 3
Eryk Anders def. Brad Tavares by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Bia Mesquita def. Montserrat Rendon by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:07, Round 1
Hecher Sosa def. Luan Lacerda by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Piera Rodriguez def. Sam Hughes by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
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