UFC Fight Night: Sterling vs. Zalal Live Winners and Losers, Results
The theme continued for another week.
A former champion in the back half of his 30s aimed to prolong relevance against a younger foe in a career-altering main event bout.
This time it was ex-bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling.
His foil was 29-year-old Youssef Zalal, who arrived on a five-fight heater (with four submissions) that had carried him to the No. 7 slot in the 145-pound rankings, two places below where Sterling sat after going 2-1 in his last three.
The Sterling-Zalal clash topped a 13-bout card at the Apex facility in Las Vegas and B/R's combat team was in place to take in all the action and delivered a real-time account of the event's definitive winners and losers.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.
Winner: Featherweight Fury
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Attention: Alexander Volkanovski.
A new challenger has entered the mix at featherweight, but not an unfamiliar one.
Sterling legitimized his chase for a second title at 145 pounds with a dominant unanimous decision—clearly winning four of five rounds on all three scorecards—over an opponent in Zalal who'd arrived with four finishes during a five-fight UFC win streak.
All three judges had it 49-45 in Sterling's favor, including a two-point gap in Round 4.
The New Yorker had a three-defense title reign at bantamweight from 2021 to 2023 and won two of his first three in his new weight class by decision over Calvin Kattar and Brian Ortega.
But nothing he'd done rivaled the chasm between he and Zalal, which included a 220-61 edge in strikes, a 6-0 sweep in takedowns and a 13:49-3:59 advantage in control time.
"Volkanovski, you know I'm coming for that a--," Sterling said. "I bring something different to the table. No one else can do what I do. I know when to take my foot off the gas and put it in their a--."
Winner: Leveling Up
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It's been quite a transformation for Joselyne Edwards.
Just 22 months ago, the powerful Panamanian fell to .500 in the promotion after a decision loss to Ailín Pérez on the UFC 302 show in New Jersey.
Come Monday, she'll more than likely wake up in the top-five rankings at bantamweight after scoring her fifth consecutive victory—a unanimous decision over third-ranked Norma Dupont in a tedious but tactical co-main event get-together at 135 pounds.
Neither fighter seemed particularly hungry for a finish or even a prolonged offensive exchange, but Edwards was consistently coming forward and at least trying to initiate the action on the way to a 113-68 edge in overall strikes and a 55-46 margin in significant lands.
Dumont, who'd won six straight since 2022, looked stunned when the result was read but Edwards said she believed her aggression had been enough all along.
"I learned from previous fights. I know I did enough," she said. "She's never faced a fighter like me that pressures and goes forward. I wanted a knockout, but what I got was still a win."
Winner: Simply Effective
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It wasn't flashy. And not particularly memorable.
But you better believe lightweight Rafa Garcia will not only take his unanimous decision defeat of streaking opponent Alexander Hernandez, he'll celebrate it.
Hernandez arrived with four straight victories in the weight class after bouncing back and forth from featherweight, but he never displayed a consistently effective strategy to offset Garcia's nearly constant forward pressure.
Instead, Garcia, a training protégé of recently retired fan favorite Cub Swanson, landed enough strikes to leave Hernandez's face reddened and bloody, and scored a memorable first-round takedown when he lifted his foe shoulder high before slamming him to the mat.
It was his third straight win and seventh in 11 octagonal outings.
"He fought extremely smart in this matchup," analyst Dominick Cruz said. "It's not easy to fight someone like Hernandez and he was extremely smart all the way through."
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Loser: Missing on the Mic
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The broadcast crew kept talking about Adrian Martinetti.
They talked about his pressure. They talked about his cardio. They talked about his durability in the face of incoming offense from opponent Davey Grant.
What they seemed to miss amid the chatter, though, was what Grant was doing.
The 40-year-old Brit strafed his aggressive foe with precise punches to the head and strategic kicks to the body and legs, ultimately doing enough to win the favor of all three judges in two of three rounds for a decision victory in his 16th octagonal appearance.
The fighters combined for more than 500 strike attempts and more than 200 lands, with Grant connecting 47 times to the head, 37 to the body and 56 to the legs.
"I f--king love this sh-t. Bring on the next one," Grant said. "He's game but he's tough. I hit him with some big shots, but he took them pretty well."
Loser: Finishing the Job
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Montel Jackson didn't protest. But he was clearly unhappy.
The UFC's 14th-ranked bantamweight turned and cursed as he heard Bruce Buffer announce the final card of a split decision in opponent Raoni Barcelos' direction, giving the Brazilian a narrow victory in their tactical main card matchup.
Jackson burst from the gate with a flurry of significant strikes in the opening round and seemed on the verge of a stoppage on the way to a 16-3 edge across the first five minutes.
But he didn't get the job done and found himself on the wrong end of a takedown contest in rounds two and three, ultimately hitting the deck six times and watching Barcelos run up nearly eight minutes of positional control time.
Now 39 years old, Barcelos has won five straight—the second-longest streak in the weight class—since winning six of his first 10 UFC appearances.
"I said through the week my wrestling was better than his," Barcelos said. "Now I'll be in the rankings where I should have been for a long time."
Winner: Heavyweight Hitter
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Maybe this heavyweight thing will work out after all.
Former middleweight and light heavyweight Ryan Spann was stopped in two rounds in his debut among the big men in March of 2025, but his last two results make it seem as if the 6'5" Texan has found his rightful place in the octagonal world.
The 34-year-old tapped out Łukasz Brzeski with a guillotine on the UFC 318 show last summer and made it two in a row in Saturday's main card opener with the left-right combination that stopped jiu-jitsu champ Marcus Buchecha at 2:10 of Round 2.
Spann spent much of the first round trying to evade takedowns or trying to rise once he'd been brought down, but the prolonged activity seemed to have more of an impact on the Brazilian's gas tank.
Buchecha's offense was less imposing in the opening moments of the second round, and he was a stationary standing target for the straight right hand that landed squarely on his jaw and sent him tumbling into a heap to draw a stoppage from referee Herb Dean.
"I really just wanted to take my time," Spann said. "We got this call not even a month ago. We all got to work immediately. I wanted to maximize my time with the training that we had."
Winner: Surviving and Thriving
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When referee Kerry Hatley waved Eric McConico toward Rodolfo Vieira for a third time, the 35-year-old American had his opponent right where he wanted him.
He'd gone 5-2-1 in eight previous fights that had reached a third round, and he ticked the win column up this time around by staying on his feet, strafing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace from distance and closing out the decision that evened his UFC record at 2-2.
All three judges had it 29-28, giving McConico the second and third rounds.
The Arizona-based middleweight was 9-2-1 before arriving to the UFC in 2025, including two wins by three-round decisions and two more by third-round finishes.
He'd beaten Cody Brundage across three rounds for his first octagonal win last summer and looked comfortable after surviving Vieira's early onslaught this time.
"It looks like the plan of weathering the first-round storm worked for him," Cruz said, "and he got a good rhythm going."
Winner: Celebratory Submission
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Consider it an early wedding present.
Lanky middleweight Jackson McVey shook off a pair of quick losses in his first two UFC appearances with a rapid submission of his own, drawing a surrender from seven-fight veteran Sedriques Dumas at 2:14 of the first round.
The two 185-pounders went straight to work exchanging punches and McVey, who stands 6'4", started the decisive sequence with a right hand that sent Dumas to the floor.
McVey pounced with a series of ground shots but transitioned to a submission try when the flurry of shots didn't draw a TKO stoppage. He seized Dumas' neck with his right arm and hooked in with the left to secure the D'arce and earn his fourth career choke finish.
His wedding is set for May 30.
"I was punching him, but he didn't seem like he was fading like I wanted him to," McVey said, "so I changed it up to the D'arce."
Winner: Looking the Part
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For five minutes, Michelle Montague resembled a legit contender.
For 10 minutes, she was much more a prospect in her second UFC fight.
Inconsistency notwithstanding, the 32-year-old New Zealander was a deserving recipient of the unanimous decision she got over 12th-ranked bantamweight Mayra Bueno Silva in their competitive prelim scrap.
She was a shutout winner on one scorecard against Bueno Silva and earned 2-1 nods on the other two after the Brazilian rallied in the second following a first round in which Montague had a 16-0 edge in strikes, landed a takedown and had 4:56 in control time.
It was an eighth straight win for the only unbeaten fighter on the card and a fitting follow-up to the wide decision she'd scored over veteran Luana Carolina on a Fight Night show in Australia last fall.
"I love Michelle Montague," analyst Daniel Cormier said. "She might be my favorite fighter now."
Winner: Outsmarting Smart Money
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Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.
Cody Durden signed on to take on submission ace Jafel Filho on less than a week's notice and arrived to the cage with the Brazilian sitting as the show's biggest betting choice.
But once the fight started, none of that mattered.
Durden overcame Filho's perceived technical edges with sheer determination, outworking the 6-to-1 favorite with an overall edge in strikes (91-50), significant strikes (34-23), takedowns (5-2) and positional control time (5:14-3:08).
He was rewarded with a clear win on the scorecards, earning two 30-27 nods and a third 29-28 verdict to lift his UFC mark to 7-8-1 in 16 fights.
Filho fell to 17-5 as a pro and 3-3 with the promotion.
Winner: Changing the Narrative
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The record doesn't always tell the story.
Particularly when it comes to Francis Marshall.
His 3-3 mark through six UFC fights wasn't too memorable, but it gets slightly better upon realizing two of the losses came via split decisions—including one against Mairon Santos on the UFC 313 show in March 2025, in which one judge gave him all three rounds.
And perhaps less surprising now that he's stringing together wins.
The 27-year-old from New Jersey earned his second straight and third of four with a clear decision over Bellator veteran Lucas Brennan at lightweight, sweeping the scorecards with matching 30-27 nods and drawing some praise from Cormier.
"Now you're starting to see a guy who's starting to grow into the fighter that you're going to see in his athletic prime," Cormier said.
Loser: Easy Decision-Making
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Combat sports judges are a convenient target. And often a legitimate one.
But it's not always an easy gig, particularly in fights like Saturday's prelim opener—where strawweight combatants Talita Alencar and Julia Polastri gave precious little to discern.
The two women, both Brazilian, were separated by just an inch in height, and each came to the cage with their hair in long braids while wearing similar blue and purple fight kits.
It wasn't so easy when the fists started flying either, with just seven strikes separating them across 15 minutes, making Alencar's three takedowns the presumably decisive factor in her narrow unanimous decision victory.
All three scorecards were 29-28 and all three judges gave her the first and second rounds before awarding Polastri, who'd entered as a 2-to-1 betting favorite, the third.
B/R's W/L card had it 29-28 the other way, giving Polastri the second and third.
Winner: Emotional Rescue
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It didn't get a whole lot easier for the cage-side kingmakers in the card's second fight either, with welterweight newbie Victor Valenzuela dueling 40-year-old UFC veteran Max Griffin over three similarly competitive rounds.
Valenzuela got the narrow nod this time with three 29-28 cards after he'd forged a slim striking advantage in each of three rounds that apparently offset Griffin's four successful takedowns on nine attempts.
The third round was visually decisive for the Chilean, who pressed forward with intermittently effective strikes while Griffin grimaced, gasped and frequently looked up at the clock.
Valenzuela was beaten in a Contender Series opportunity in October, then won a fight with a Japanese promotion in late March before getting a call to appear on Saturday's card.
He was particularly emotional after the death of his grandmother just five days ago, and read a note to her after the fight.
"I'm here and my faith remains intact," he said. "You were with me today. This victory is yours."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Aljamain Sterling def. Youssef Zalal by unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-45)
Joselyne Edwards def. Norma Dumont by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Rafa Garcia def. Alexander Hernandez by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Davey Grant def. Adrian Luna Martinetti by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Raoni Barcelos def. Montel Jackson by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Ryan Spann def. Marcus Buchecha by KO (punch), 2:10, Round 2
Preliminary Card
Eric McConico def. Rodolfo Vieira by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jackson McVey def. Sedriques Dumas by submission (D'arce choke), 2:14, Round 1
Michelle Montague def. Mayra Bueno Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Cody Durden def. Jafel Filho by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Francis Marshall def. Lucas Brennan by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Victor Valenzuela def. Max Griffin by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Talita Alencar def. Julia Polastri by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
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