The Real Winners and Losers from UFC 250

Lyle FitzsimmonsJun 6, 2020

The song remained the same Saturday night as the UFC carried off its second pay-per-view show since returning full bore amid the global pandemic.

The company held UFC 250 at its Apex facility in Las Vegas, exactly four weeks after UFC 249 went off at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

Announcers Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier once again used socially distanced microphones from separate tables, and for the second straight show, the post-fight interviews were conducted from separate locations. Cormier had initially done in-cage interviews with winners last month, but the network switched to an "interview zone" format last week and continued it in the PPV broadcast this time around.

Twelve fights were the reward for fans who showed staying power from the start of the early preliminary card at 6 p.m. ET all the way to the championship main event's conclusion after 12:30 a.m., and needless to say, a card with that much action will be chock-full of winners and losers.

So we on the B/R combat sports team have done our part and assembled our picks. Click on through and see how close our recollections come to yours.

Winner: The GOAT

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If you don't believe Amanda Nunes is a badass, ask Felicia Spencer.

The Canadian export was beaten from one side of the Octagon to the other as the UFC featherweight champion successfully defended her title atop the UFC 250 card.

The two fighters embraced after the unanimous decision was announced, and Nunes actually draped her belt across the beaten challenger's shoulder, but there was little to suggest the Brazilian wasn't exactly what she's been billed as: the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time.

"It's about as close as anyone's going to get to that belt for a long, long time," Cormier said. "Felicia Spencer is as skilled and as tough as anyone, and she might beat everyone else, but Nunes is on a completely different level from anyone we've seen."

The champion swept the scorecards with two counts of 50-44 and another of 50-45.

Nunes landed 124 significant strikes to Spencer's 42, had 57 percent accuracy to Spencer's 32 and successfully converted six of seven takedown attempts while snuffing all seven of Spencer's tries.

She also became the first simultaneous two-division champ in UFC history to defend both belts, and she has eight title-fight wins, placing her third among active fighters behind Jon Jones (14) and Anderson Silva (11) and tied with Jose Aldo.

"I knew she was very tough, and I had to be sharp. I had to go five rounds, and I had to be sharp as a cactus," Nunes said. "That was my goal, to defend my two belts."

"She made it look like a glorified sparring training session," Anik said.

Cormier agreed, and after saying Nunes has cleaned out both the 135- and 145-pound divisions, he suggested she tangle with flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko, who she's beaten twice.

"She and Valentina Shevchenko could fight every weekend," he said. "Because that's the only thing out there."

Loser: Henry Cejudo's Ego

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With all due respect to Henry Cejudo, the bantamweight division is still red hot.

The decorated champion retired after a main-event win at UFC 249 last month, but the 135-pounders didn't miss a beat one pay-per-view show later.

Just when it looked like No. 2 Aljamain Sterling had blazed a trail to a title shot with a first-round blitz of Cory Sandhagen, former champ Cody Garbrandt threw his hat into the impressive-performance ring.

Garbrandt laid out durable fifth-ranked contender Raphael Assuncao with a single right hand in their co-main event on Saturday night, saying a three-fight losing streak and a brief hiatus from the cage had reignited his competitive flame.

"It's been a journey. I went from the top of the world to a three-fight skid," he said. "I got the passion back in my heart and the mentality to become the best in the world once again."

He and Assuncao had gone shot for shot with little to separate them for nine-plus minutes heading toward the second-round bell, until Assuncao plodded forward, and Garbrandt dipped at the waist and unleashed a looping right that left the Brazilian unconscious as he tumbled face-first to the floor.

The official time of the KO was 4:59 of the second round.

"I knew he was going to come forward like he needed to. I needed him to come just a little bit more, and I knew the right hand would land," Garbrandt said.

Sterling, though perhaps in different terms, would surely agree.

He pounced on Sandhagen from the start, took control of his back from the vertical position and cinched in a rear-naked choke on the ground that left his foe tapping out at the instant he lost consciousness.

"There's black belts, and then there are black belts," Sterling said. "I get to work with the best guys in the world, next-level ninjas. Once I take you down, it's going to be a long night."

UFC czar Dana White said a bout for Cejudo's since-vacated bantamweight title is in the works between No. 3 contender Petr Yan and No. 6 Jose Aldo.

"The bantamweight division is on f--king fire," Garbrandt said. "We got some killers in this b---h.

Winner: A Lump of Suga

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There are matter-of-fact reactions, and then there are matter-of-fact reactions.

Sean O'Malley's reaction after landing the straight right hand that separated Eddie Wineland from consciousness was certainly the latter.

"That might be the greatest walkaway KO we've ever seen," Rogan said. "It's time to buy stock in Suga Sean O'Malley."

The unbeaten bantamweight used a subtle uppercut feint to lower Wineland's left-hand guard, unleashed a laser-beam shot that sent Wineland tumbling straight to his back and simply turned and walked away as Herb Dean came in to tend to the prone fighter.

"I think that was worth 100 grand rather than 50 grand," O'Malley said. "I really do believe I have the best striking in MMA."

There was little to indicate he was incorrect.

Wineland had promised to drag O'Malley into the sort of mayhem he'd not seen in a five-year career, but he did little more than land intermittent right hands before O'Malley's bomb landed and closed the show at 1:54 of the first round.

"He shows time and time again he is among the 15 best bantamweights in the world," Cormier said, "and he's only getting better."

Loser: The Dream

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Twenty-year-old Chase Hooper had the looks. He had the unbeaten record.

And Saturday night, he had the prime position in the featured bout of the preliminary card.

But within moments of the opening bell of his match against veteran Alex Caceres, he had something else: no chance.

Hooper seemed completely out of his element once the initial five minutes got started, getting continually blasted with clean, sharp shots from a mobile target as he watched his 31-year-old foe walk away with a unanimous-decision victory.

The loss in his second UFC fight dropped Hooper's pro record to 9-1-1, while Caceres jumped to 16-12-1 in a career that began in November 2008—when Hooper was nine years old.

"You could see from the start of the fight that Alex Caceres was the more well-rounded fighters, and he showed it," Cormier said. "He refused to allow Chase Hooper to draw him into the type of fight he needed to fight."

Caceres, who's based out of Miami and carries the nickname "Bruce Leeroy," was clearly dominant when the bout was vertical and eluded significant trouble in the few instances it went to the mat.

"I know a lot of people think they can beat me. I know what I look like," he said. "But I know that every time I step in that cage I get 1 percent better every time."

It was reminiscent of Caceres' 2014 fight against Sergio Pettis, who entered with a 10-0 record and left with a third-round submission loss.

"It was patient pressure," Caceres said. "Catch him coming in, hit his body. Make him work like he's never worked before. I knew he wasn't going to like it."

Winner: Cody Stamann's Mettle

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Everyone in Las Vegas, and everywhere else for that matter, knew it was coming.

Cody Stamann was an instant past finishing one of the biggest wins of his career—over featherweight slugger Brian Kelleher—when he touched his hand to his heart, sank to his knees and cried his eyes out.

The 30-year-old is still just days beyond the death of his teen brother, Jacob, and had pressed on with his late-stage training and fight prep.

He swept the scorecards with a trio of 30-27 counts with a mix of effective aggression and airtight defense, and earned the regard of Kelleher, the ESPN crew and everyone else who saw the way he handled himself.

"To go through what he's been going through personally and to put on what might have been his best performance to date," Cormier said, "it's a big credit to Cody Stamann and who he is."

Stamann held an edge in significant strikes in all three rounds, outlanding Kelleher by a 24-17 margin in the first and following it with 35-19 and 30-21 advantages across the final two.

"It's been hard. It's been real hard," Stamann said. "I've been fighting tears all day. I had to buckle up and be a man and get this done for [my brother], for my family and for myself. [My corner team] held me together; they picked me up they dusted me off."

Stamann and Kelleher fought at a contracted featherweight limit, but the winner said he plans to endure the pre-fight weight cut again and get himself back down to the 135-pound ranks.

"I definitely prefer 145 because 135 is so hard to make," he said. "But at 135, I'm the biggest, most athletic guy in division. The biggest names are there now."

Loser: Temporary Retirements

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There was a time when Evan Dunham was the real deal.

The Las Vegas-based Oregonian arrived in the UFC when the pay-per-view count was still in double digits—at UFC 95 in 2009—and has earned or shared in five post-fight performance bonuses while also tangling with the likes of Sean Sherk, Rafael dos Anjos, Donald Cerrone and Edson Barboza.

He retired following a KO loss on a Fight Night show in Brazil in September 2018 and remained on the shelf for more than a year-and-a-half before deciding to rejoin the fray.

He was set to face Michael Johnson on another Fight Night show in April, but that fight was scrapped amid pandemic-related scheduling changes, and he was subsequently penciled into Saturday night's early-prelim card for a desert date with Herbert Burns.

It wasn't long before a permanent vacation looked like the better choice.

Burns took Dunham down about a minute in and quickly got his foe's back before sinking in a rear-naked choke and drawing the tapout after just 80 seconds of competition.

The loss dropped Dunham to 18-9-1 as a pro and was his 10th non-victory in 17 fights since an 11-0 start.

Winner: Playing Favorites

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Somewhere, there's a guy cashing a $166,000 ticket on Nunes.

And while not everyone has the sort of bankroll to lay a million bucks on a prohibitive favorite, there's no doubt that backing the pre-fight chalk in the main card Saturday night was the way to go.

Each of the five favorites produced in the spotlight, including Nunes, who entered the cage as a minus-650 proposition and came through with a clear-cut unanimous decision over Felicia Spencer.

Young bantamweight O'Malley also backed up heavy money in his favor by stopping Wineland in a single round as a minus-500 pick, while Garbrandt (-145), Neil Magny (-135) and Sterling (minus-115) did so as less definitive selections.

Overall, the five favorites returned a $500 profit for $100 bets made in each fight, while the same outlay on the five underdogs would have generated a $505 loss.

A win by Maki Pitolo in the first bout of the prelim card was a surprise considering it came against minus-175 favorite Charles Byrd, but plus-180 underdog Caceres trumped that upset in the prelim finale with his clear three-round decision over previously unbeaten Hooper.

In the middle two bouts, favorites Stamann (-250) and Ian Heinisch (-130) handled their business.

Form held in two of three fights on the early-prelim card, with favorites Herbert Burns (-230) and Alex Perez (-135) holding serve. Devin Clark's decision over Alonzo Menifield was the only upset.

Clark, who won the scorecards by counts of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, was a plus-190 risk.

Though Perez was a favorite over Jussier Formiga, he entered the cage ranked ninth at flyweight compared to Formiga's No. 4 ranking. His first-round TKO by a calf kick was the 12th leg-kick TKO in UFC history and the 11th first-round finish of his career.

"Alex Perez showed that he's not only improving but finishing fights at a high level," Cormier said. "This is massive for Alex Perez and his entire team. He is as viable a contender as we have at 125 pounds."

Bets on favorites across the prelims were good for a $95 profit, compared to a $155 loss for underdogs.

Meanwhile, Nunes' win gave a 4-2 edge to fighters who either were ranked higher in a fight or carried a ranking while their opponent did not. No. 9 bantamweight Garbrandt and the aforementioned No. 9 flyweight Perez were the winners from lesser-ranked positions.