UFC Fight Night 96 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Portland Card

Scott HarrisOct 1, 2016

John Lineker did it again.

As UFC Fight Night 96 began Saturday night in Portland, Oregon, it did so in a bit of a headwind. The main event, originally a potential number-one bantamweight contender bout between Lineker and John Dodson, lost some serious steam when Lineker missed weight. For the fifth time in his UFC career. That's a record.

That certainly lowered the stakes (and the purse) for Lineker, as there was a much lower chance of a win moving him into title contention given the clear risk he posed. But even with that fact, the stakes remained high for Dodson—a Greg Jackson trainee who won his last fight with a 37-second knockout.

There was a flash of gold in the co-main event, where Will Brooks, the longtime lightweight champion in the Bellator promotion, fought for the second time in the UFC when he took on Brazilian stoppage-seeker Alex Oliveira.

As the West Coast card stretched into Sunday morning, there was plenty of intrigue for a cable TV card. And as always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 96.

Full card results appear on the final slide.

Winner: John Lineker

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You have to give it up for John Lineker, the biggest little fighter in the UFC.

Lineker walked through head kicks and strong left hands to deliver plenty of punishment of his own, coming on strong down the stretch to knock Dodson out of rhythm and edge him out for a narrow, split-decision win.

Nevertheless, he could have been designated as a loser. He did miss weight, after all, despite fighting at a higher weight class. He also did something a little silly after the fight, telling broadcaster Jon Anik in the cage, "I think I deserve Dominick Cruz. It's time for me now. I've got four consecutive wins. It's my turn now."

Although, to make that fight with the champ, you'd have to ignore the fact that he can't make weight. And you can't really ignore that.

This is to say nothing of the fact that Lineker, because of the weight issue, isn't eligible for post-fight bonuses from the UFC. Although it was the clear fight of the night, the UFC pointedly did not give out a Fight of the Night bonus for the card. You have to feel for Dodson for losing out on $50,000 through no fault of his own, but those are the breaks.

Still, the fans didn't appear to hold any of this against Lineker too much, awed as they were by his vicious body shots, iron chin and stalk-you-down mentality. It was a sharp contrast to Dodson, who rightly tried to stay clear of Lineker's power but ended up openly back-pedaling for protracted stretches of the contest.

Next up for Lineker? How about T.J. Dillashaw or Cody Garbrandt? There are plenty of interesting fights to make, and it's clear at this point that, despite his challenges on the scale, Hands of Stone is box-office gold.

Loser: Alex Oliveira

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Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira pulled the upset Saturday night, outclinching then ground-and-pounding Will Brooks for a third-round TKO.

And yet, he is squarely in the loser column for the evening.

Why is that? Well, it all started Friday when Oliveira missed weight by 5.5 pounds. That's a lot. And it was why Cowboy was able to hold his own in the clinch with Brooks, where Brooks is notoriously strong.

Early in the fight, Brooks told his corner he "popped" a rib. It's hard to know for sure what that means, but it didn't mean anything good, and that became more and more evident as the bout wore on.

Eventually, the pain appeared to overwhelm Brooks. Oliveira got him to the ground and finished the bout with ground strikes.

That's when things went south.

Oliveira reacted to the win with the crotch chop gesture made popular by pro wrestlers and Pete Weber. It's not a very respectful gesture, especially when you missed weight by five freaking pounds and your opponent is on the ground writhing in pain.

The crowd reacted accordingly, as did Brooks, who got to his feet and mustered enough energy to whip his mouthpiece at Oliveira.

Afterward, as the boos rained down, Oliveira played the innocent, saying through a translator "he called my mom names" after he missed weight. Seems a little sensitive for a cage fighter, but whatever.

In any case, it was a nice win for Oliveira, who also said after the fight that he is now going to move up to welterweight. But it didn't do a lot to endear him to the fans or anyone else.

Loser: Joshua Burkman

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Joshua Burkman (right) takes a punch from Zak Ottow.

Switch stances, dart forward, eat a leg kick, throw no strikes. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It was not an exceptionally dynamic performance from veteran Joshua Burkman on Saturday. All credit to UFC newcomer Zak Ottow, who took advantage of Burkman's low output to pull the upset.

This was the fourth loss in five fights for Burkman. Combine that with his uninspiring style of late and this could be problematic for the 36-year-old's continued UFC employment.

That was something that didn't go unnoticed on social media. As Mookie Alexander of Bloody Elbow opined on Twitter, "Gotta cut Burkman now. He's become unwatchable and his repeated main card appearances are perplexing."

It's unclear whether UFC leadership will agree with that type of assessment, but Burkman certainly didn't help his stock out there in Portland.

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Winner: Brandon Moreno

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"The Octagon is magical!"

Sometimes it is, Brandon Moreno. Sometimes it is.

Those were the words of the elated Moreno moments after he pulled a massive upset by choking out Louis Smolka in the main card opener.

The tough Mexican flyweight made his first national impression as a cast member in the current season of The Ultimate Fighter, where he showed a lot of toughness before ultimately losing to super-prospect Alexandre Pantoja.

The performance was impressive enough that, when Sergio Pettis pulled out of this fight with Smolka, UFC brass tapped Moreno as the replacement.

The beaming, 22-year-old Moreno proved as likable in his gushing post-fight interview as he did during the fight. Did the UFC just find a promising new personality for its flyweight division and its dreams of Mexican expansion?

Winner: Andre Fili

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Andre Fili (left) and Hacran Dias

That's how you recover from the worst loss of your UFC career—with the best win of your UFC career.

When last we saw Andre Fili, he was on the business end of a highlight-reel head kick from Yair Rodriguez. That was in April. Six months later, Fili showed much-improved wrestling and defense (on the feet and the ground) in chewing up Hacran Dias for a unanimous-decision win.

Working behind a powerful jab, Fili marked up Dias with combinations throughout; a left hook nearly led to a TKO finish in the opening round, but the grinder Dias was able to survive and blanket Fili long enough to recover.

Fili also displayed beautiful takedowns, using a whizzer to reverse one Dias attempt and a lateral drop to notch another.

This is the kind of controlled fury fans hoped for when the Team Alpha Male fighter first entered the UFC out of Tachi Palace Fights. Dias is also clearly the biggest name he's ever beaten, with his previous UFC wins coming over Jeremy Larsen, Gabriel Benitez and Felipe Arantes.

Afterward, Fili told anyone with a camera or a microphone that he wanted to fight on the UFC's upcoming card in his hometown of Sacramento, California.

If I'm the UFC, I'm having a hard time seeing a downside to that pairing for the popular and outspoken featherweight. Why not match him up with Renan Barao? That might be exciting.