UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs. Pyfer Live Winners and Losers, Results
Not all Fight Night cards are created equal.
And it's not hard to imagine that Saturday's 13-bout show and its nine finishes will be considered among the best of the bunch by the end of 2026.
Both the main and co-main bouts featured ex-champions trying to hold on to lofty rankings against rising contenders, with former two-time middleweight king Israel Adesanya returning from a 13-month hiatus and a three-fight losing skid to take on a winner of three straight and six of seven in the UFC, Joe Pyfer.
Pyfer was ranked 14th at 185 pounds, 10 slots below Adesanya at No. 4.
Adesanya, now 36, hadn't won since starching Alex Pereira in Round 2 of their second MMA bout nearly three years ago in Miami, losing the belt to Sean Strickland in his next fight and subsequently being tapped by Dricus Du Plessis and KO'd by Nassourdine Imavov in August 2024 and February 2025, respectively.
Meanwhile, former rivals Alexa Grasso and Maycee Barber met in the co-main at flyweight, five years after Grasso won a unanimous decision on the undercard at UFC 258. She advanced to a title two years later when she tapped out Valentina Shevchenko in the first bout of what became a trilogy between them at 125 pounds.
Grasso hadn't won since securing that upset, subsequently fighting to a draw and a decision loss against Shevchenko and losing another unanimous nod to Natalia Silva on the UFC 315 show last May. Barber had won seven straight since the defeat by Grasso and arrived ranked fifth at flyweight, one spot below Grasso.
B/R's combat team took in the action from Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and delivered a real-time rundown 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.
Loser: Recognizing Reality
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It's official: The "Last Stylebender's" Era is over.
Whether he concedes to it or not.
Adesanya was effective when using punches and calf kicks in the opening round against a younger, stronger foe, but his willingness to brawl in Round 2 was his undoing and led to a TKO loss to Pyfer at 4:18.
The ex-two-time champ was face-down with Pyfer on top of him and delivering blows to both sides of the head until Herb Dean intervened.
It's a fourth straight loss for the New Zealand-based Nigerian and came after a year-plus hiatus, during which Adesanya took a break from training and insisted his return was prelude to new dominance in a sport he'd done full time since 2012.
He's now lost five of his last six and been finished four times in that stretch but remained defiant when analyst Daniel Cormier implied that he might be nearing the end of the road.
"What do you do now? You keep going again and again and again and again and again," Adesanya said. "I'm not f--king leaving. I may lose a fight but I'm still undefeated."
Winner: Sudden Superlative
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You want a women's finish of the year? Look no further. The voting is closed.
Grasso ended two minutes of tactical positioning with a straight left that sent Barber to the floor, then wrapped her right arm around her stricken foe's throat as referee Mike Beltran scrambled in to officially end the flyweight showdown after just 2:42.
The finish was announced as a KO because Beltran's intent was to wave the fight off before Grasso locked up the rear-naked choke. In fact, a glassy-eyed Barber laid motionless for several moments before she was revived to a seated position.
It was her first loss since Grasso outpointed her in Las Vegas in 2021.
Grasso, who lobbied afterward for a future show in her native Guadalajara, ended a three-fight winless streak and is 9-5-1 in the promotion.
"One of the craziest finishes I've ever seen in women's MMA is that one," blow-by-blow man Brendan Fitzgerald said. "That might have been the finish of the year."
Winner: Ending in Style
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Both men got a retirement party. But only one man enjoyed it.
Washington native Michael Chiesa announced that the fight in his home state would be his finale, and he was up to the swan song challenge, taking fellow retiree Niko Price down and securing the rear-naked choke that ended things at 1:03 of Round 1.
Chiesa, 38, ended his career with four straight victories and was particularly emotional while thanking his mother, his wife and his late father, who died shortly before Chiesa began his UFC run by winning The Ultimate Fighter in 2012.
"I'm a kid that came from nothing," he said. "All I did was work hard, dream big, and never gave up on myself."
The 36-year-old Price arrived on short notice, was beaten for the 11th time in 19 UFC fights and lost in the first round for the second time in 49 days after he was KO'd by Nikolay Veretennikov on a Fight Night show in early February.
"I kept it simple, closed the space, got my hands locked and I wasn't going to let it go," Chiesa said. "I'm thankful that I got a finish in my style of fight."
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Winner: Bonus-Hunting Brazilian
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On a night full of star-making performances, Lerryan Douglas fit right in.
The Brazilian slugger parlayed a quick Contender Series into a debut in hostile territory against local favorite Julian Erosa, donning the black hat and steering into the villainous skid by bludgeoning his veteran foe into a KO at 3:33 of Round 1.
Douglas began by hammering Erosa's left leg with calf kicks, taking away his ability to move away from the follow-up punches that yielded a series of knockdowns and gave Douglas his seventh win inside of five minutes when referee Blake Grice stepped in.
He's unbeaten in his last six fights, while Erosa fell to 9-9 across three UFC stints.
"The featherweights have got a gunslinger from Brazil," Fitzgerald said. "That's as impressive as we've seen tonight. That's how you enter the UFC."
Loser: Picking the Prospect
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There was a middleweight prospect in the main-card bout between Mansur Abdul-Malik and Yousri Belgaroui. No one, though, seemed to know which fighter it was.
Abdul-Malik arrived unbeaten both in the UFC and as a pro and was a betting favorite to handle Belgaroui, who'd split two Contender Series appearances and hadn't earned a contract despite winning on the show in 2024.
But Belgaroui was in full control from the opening glove tap, using his 6'6" frame and 79-inch reach to dominate from range early, then pounding his subsequently gassed opponent until Beltran intervened at 3:39 of the third.
His previous opponent, Azamat Bekoev, had won eight straight fights before Belgaroui stopped him on short notice, also by TKO and also in the final round.
"I had to give everything I had. I'm glad I got it. On to the next," said Belgaroui, a training partner of former 185-pound champ Alex Pereira. "When I visualized it, I knocked (Abdul-Malik) out like a thousand times."
Winner: Repeating the Recipe
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Terrance McKinney knows his winning recipe.
Strike early. Strike often. And strike until someone makes you stop.
It yielded a perfectly-prepared victory in the opening bout of Saturday's main card, which included a head-kick knockdown of Kyle Nelson and 22 subsequent ground strikes before Dean waved things off after just 24 seconds.
Amazingly, the win was just the sixth-fastest of a pro career that had previously included triumphs in seven (twice), 16, 17 and 20 seconds. He's gone past the first round just four times in 26 fights, losing three times in Round 2 and winning once in Round 3.
"I was picking my shots. It's just that the power was too overwhelming," McKinney said. "It's the ability god has blessed me with. And I got that ninja strength."
Loser: Definitive Dominance
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The record books reflect a win for Tofiq Musayev.
The Azerbaijani lightweight got Ignacio Bahamondes to the mat multiple times and beat him into a gory mess that left the canvas puddled with the Brazilian's blood.
Still, the unanimous decision will carry an asterisk for those who saw the fight.
Musayev was dropped by a punch in the second round, and, as Bahamodes tried to secure a follow-up takedown, he kept himself upright with a blatant fence grab that was somehow missed by referee Bobby Wombacher.
Had the grab not occurred, who knows?
A subsequent headbutt was also missed, allowing Musayev to continue a rally that included the vicious elbow that opened a bloody gash above his foe's right eyebrow.
"He won the fight," Cormier said. "But it's going to be 'But' whenever I think of it."
Winner: Taking the High Road
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The crowd wanted to loathe Lance Gibson Jr.
The British Columbia-based lightweight finished Washington native Chase Hooper with a series of thudding strikes and immediately heard a torrent of boos from a Climate Pledge Arena crowd that thought referee Blake Grice might have intervened too soon.
But rather than assuming a Maple Leaf-logoed black hat and engaging the angry masses, Gibson chose instead to remind them that he'd been born in West Seattle and had come to the city on scholastic field trips with a dream that he'd one day perform there.
"You don't have to boo me, it's all good," Gibson said. "I dreamed of one day being able to be on a stage as big as this. Now I'm here. I got a W here. I'm at a loss for words."
He improved to 10-2 and evened his UFC record at 1-1 after a short-notice loss to King Green on a Fight Night show in December.
"Whether you're booing me or not," Gibson said, "I love you."
Loser: Announcer Apologies
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Bruce Buffer will be going viral. But not in a way he'd want to.
The veteran UFC mic man announced Marcin Tybura as a unanimous winner of his heavyweight bout with newcomer Tyrell Fortune, prompting Fortune to immediately leave the cage as Tybura stood sheepishly in the center, with no post-fight interview.
It took about 60 seconds for the lack of interest in Tybura's post-fight commentary to be revealed, as officials summoned Fortune back to the cage to hear Buffer apologize for his error before re-announcing Fortune as the winner by scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28.
The 35-year-old had 20 pro fights across four promotions before arriving to the UFC, winning three in a row since a submission defeat in the PFL's 2024 playoffs.
He took Tybura down three times. racked up better than five minutes of control time and probably locked up a ranking by beating the promotion's No. 9 heavyweight.
"I was so upset with myself," Fortune said of his reaction to the initial announcement. "I felt like somehow I didn't do enough. I was just upset."
Winner: Aussie Re-Ascension
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There's happy. And then there's Casey O'Neill happy.
The Australia-based flyweight zoomed through the seven stages of delirium in the cage after a devastating barrage of punches rendered opponent Gabriella Fernandes semi-conscious at 3:11 of Round 1 of a meeting of ranked 125-pounders.
Beltran's intervention triggered the 28-year-old to flit across the cage while pumping her fists, shouting and ultimately crying happy tears after ending a 19-month hiatus in which she'd endured injuries and surgery and had to overcome doubt both internal and external.
O'Neill arrived ranked 12th at flyweight while Fernandes was 14th.
"My own surgeon told me, 'You might never fight again.' F--k him," O'Neill said. "All I needed was a fight card to show how good I am. On the days I couldn't believe in myself (my training team) believed in me so f--king hard. I've never felt better on a Fight Night."
Winner: Broadcast Battling
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The broadcast bout was more competitive than the one in the cage.
Unbeaten light heavyweight Navajo Sterling kept his pristine record intact with a punishing second-round TKO of Brazilian veteran Bruno Lopes that featured a minute-plus of unfettered ground-and-pound offense before referee Keith Peterson stepped in at 4:05.
Analyst Daniel Cormier was borderline aghast at Peterson's decision to let the carnage continue, shouting "this fight is over" several times as Lopes showed little ability to fight off the onslaught.
Broadcast partner Dominick Cruz was on the other side, though, crediting Peterson's patience and saying he wished he'd gotten that long of a leash from the official when Peterson worked Cruz's title loss to Henry Cejudo at UFC 249 in 2020.
Sterling's win was his ninth as a pro and fourth straight in the UFC.
Loser: Return to Nowhere
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Just when it looked like Adrian Yanez had returned, the judges decided otherwise.
The Texan was one of the UFC's brightest prospects in a six-fight run that carried him from the Contender Series in 2020 to the 135-pound rankings by the end of 2022, but the shine wore off during a follow-up stretch of three losses in four fights.
It appeared he'd gotten back on the winning side in Saturday's second fight, strafing local hero Ricky Simon from distance in the first round and nearly finishing him at the end of the third, until the trio of Sal D'Amato, Eric Colon and Antonio Guerrero showed that that they'd been watching something else.
All three judges gave Simon the first two rounds, and only a two-point margin in the third on D'Amato's and Colon's cards allowed Yanez to salvage a majority draw, while Guerrero's one-point lean in Yanez's direction yielded a 29-28 overall edge for Simon on his card.
B/R gave Yanez the first and third and saw him a clear 29-28 winner.
"I don't understand that," Cormier said.
Winner: Brazilian Revenge
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The night's first fight provided the first chance for competitive revenge and Brazilian strawweight Alexia Thainara secured it with a workmanlike—if not exactly scintillating—three-rounder over second-time foe Bruna Brasil.
Ranked 13th in the weight class, Thainara arrived having won 11 straight fights since Brasil submitted her with a guillotine in 2019. Two of those wins had come in the UFC since the 30-year-old earned a spot with a Contender Series victory in 2024.
Brasil was effective early in the rematch with work from distance with elbows and kicks, but Thainara closed the gap and eventually scored six takedowns while racking up nearly 10 minutes in control time and earning three shutout scores of 30-27.
B/R's card also gave Thainara all three rounds.
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Joe Pyfer def. Israel Adesanya by TKO (punches), 4:18, Round 2
Alexa Grasso def. Maycee Barber by KO (punch), 2:42, Round 1
Michael Chiesa def. Niko Price by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:03, Round 1
Lerryan Douglas def. Julian Erosa by KO (punches), 3:33, Round 1
Yousri Belgaroui def. Mansur Abdul-Malik by TKO (knee), 3:39, Round 3
Terrance McKinney def. Kyle Nelson by TKO (punches), 0:24, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Tofiq Musayev def. Ignacio Bahamondes by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 30-27)
Lance Gibson Jr. def. Chase Hooper by TKO (knees), 2:56, Round 1
Tyrell Fortune def. Marcin Tybura by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Casey O'Neill def. Gabriella Fernandes by KO (punches), 3:11, Round 1
Navajo Stirling def. Bruno Lopes by TKO (punches), 4:05, Round 2
Ricky Simon drew with Adrian Yanez by majority decision (29-28, 28-28, 28-28)
Alexia Thainara def. Bruna Brasil by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
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