Rafael dos Anjos and the Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 182

On the surface, Saturday's UFC Fight Night show had precious little going for it.

The main card aired on ESPN three hours before a highly anticipated boxing championship match, and the event was the final Octagonal pit stop before a loaded dual-title pay-per-view show.

Nevertheless, it delivered a worthwhile combative experience of its own.

The main event was scrambled by injury five days before the opening glove-touch and necessitated semi-retired analyst Paul Felder to abandon his broadcast post for a shot at former lightweight titleholder Rafael dos Anjos. Equally compelling on the undercard was a welterweight contest matching bombers Abdul Razak Alhassan and Khaos Williams, who arrived with a combined 20-3 record and 16 finishes.

"Another busy week in the busiest building in pro sports," said Brendan Fitzgerald, who captained the cable/live stream broadcast alongside Michael Bisping, while Heidi Androl provided backstage feature stories and highly respected coach Trevor Wittman contributed strategic analysis.

The Bleacher Report combat sports team manned its traditional weekend post and was charged with dissecting the card's results and assessing its biggest winners and losers.

Take a look at what we came up with and let us know in the comments where we hit and missed.

Loser: Quitting Your Day Job

Perhaps Felder should have run the triathlon after all.

The semi-retired lightweight abandoned his ESPN broadcast table gig to take a main event bout with ex-champ Dos Anjos on five days' notice, but it didn't translate to competitive success, as he was beaten to a bloody mess on the way to a clear, punishing decision loss.

Clear that is to all but one judge, who somehow scored it 48-47 for Felder but was overruled by 50-45 shutout verdicts on the other two scorecards.

Bleacher Report agreed with the majority and scored all five rounds for the winner.

It was Felder's second UFC main event and the 11th for Dos Anjos.

"I respect what Paul Felder did," Bisping said. "He dared to be great, and he looked great."

Felder was impressive and tried to carry the fight to Dos Anjos when the foes were in the center of the cage, but he was unable to come up with an answer to his opponent's constant aggression and takedown attempts. Dos Anjos got him to the floor in every round, and while he never got within reach of a submission, the pressure did challenge Felder's cardio, which he had only built by training for a race.

"I got a little tired there in the fifth," Felder said. "I was in striking shape. I have not stepped foot in an MMA gym in almost four months. But I said I was gonna go in and give hell to a former world champion, and I just went 25 minutes and got a split decision."

It was a second straight loss for Felder, who had not fought since February, and a triumphant return to the 155-pound ranks for Dos Anjos, who had been the top man in the division before moving to welterweight. He had lost four of his past five coming in, though, and chose to return to 155 at age 36.

Based on his performance, a high-profile opportunity is on his agenda.

"I want to face whoever is in line for the belt," he said. "I know I've got a lot in me still. If Khabib is really retired, it will leave the division wide open. Me and Conor [McGregor], we are the only real champions in that division. If the division is open, me and Conor is the fight to make."

Winner: Khaos Incarnate

The pre-fight stare from Khaos Williams was badass.

But anyone familiar with Abdul Razak Alhassan knew it was going to take more than a mean face to beat the muscled-up welterweight with 10 finishes in his 10 professional victories.

That was no problem for Williams, who followed up a blistering UFC debut with an equally jarring encore—dropping Alhassan with a single right hand to score a KO in 30 seconds in the co-main event.

"Look at that! He is stiff as a board," Bisping said. "Talk about don't-blink performances."

Williams followed up his menacing glare with three heavy leg kicks in the opening few seconds and triggered the decisive sequence with a flicking left-hand feint and then drilled a powerful straight right through Alhassan's upraised arms that landed square on the chin and set his man backward to the floor.

Williams pounced for one more ground strike to his stricken opponent before referee Mark Smith leaped in to pull him away. He then got a congratulatory fist bump from president Dana White upon exiting the cage.

The Michigan-based fighter became the fifth welterweight in UFC history to boast two KOs in less than a minute, following up on his February debut against Alex Morono, which ended in 27 seconds.

"It's not personal, just punishment," he said. "I've been waiting to get on TV and do this. I'm a diamond in the rough. I'm a star in the making. I'm here. Winning it a state of mind. I'm here, and I'm going to keep doing this."

Winner: Staying Super Busy

Sean Strickland clearly has some catching up to do.

The American middleweight was on the competitive shelf for better than two years after a motorcycle accident in 2018. He returned in style with a dominant three-round decision win Oct. 31.

But that wasn't good enough for the 29-year-old to rest on.

Strickland was back in the Octagon in a catchweight bout with Brendan Allen just 14 days later, and he made it two in a row in impressive style with a second-round TKO.

It was the third-shortest break between UFC victories in history.

"If you watch Brendan, he is a tough guy; he's never been broken," Strickland said. "If you watch his fights, he doesn't break, so I remember telling my corner: 'I want to break this guy. I want to hit this guy, keep hitting and try to break him. I want him to not want to be here.'"

He accomplished his goal after an evenly matched first round, landing a jab/right-hand combination to Allen's chin that sent him wobbling toward the cage. Strickland pounced and fired four quick ground strikes as his foe tried to regain his senses, necessitating a rescue from referee Herb Dean.

"I hit him, and I could just see the lights were on but nobody was home," he said. "And at that point, you just want to go in for the finish."

Winner: The Future of the Strawweights

It wasn't a title fight or even a matchup of top contenders, but the main card opener Saturday night showed that the UFC's 115-pound division has a promising outlook.

In fact, second-time Octagonal participant Kay Hansen and first-timer Cory McKenna, both 21, combined to provide the youngest total age of any women's bout in UFC history and a tie for the third-youngest bout regardless of gender.

And it was every bit as competitive as it was evenly matched in age.

Hansen controlled matters while the fighters were on their feet, and McKenna was able to dish out some significant punishment on the ground, and the latter turned out more important, as the Welsh import escaped with a narrow but unanimous decision, with all three scorecards giving her a 29-28 margin.

B/R saw it the other way, giving Hansen a one-point edge on its card.

"They were very, very evenly matched," Bisping said. "And they both had the same will, the same desire to get it done."

McKenna, who had UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber in her corner, agreed.

"I was expecting a tough fight," she said. "Kay is one of the top prospects in the division. We are both improving very rapidly. I've said from the beginning it was going to be a tough fight all around. She delivered on that. It was not my best performance, but for my debut, I'm obviously over the moon to get that win."

Loser: Equipment Staying Put

There are delays for low blows. There are delays for eye pokes. There are delays for doctor visits.

But the 40-second stall in Round 3 of a three-rounder between Alex Morono and Rhys McKee was unusual even by UFC standards.

The welterweights took a powder around the midway mark of the final session when McKee's mouthpiece dropped from his mouth during a tie-up along the cage and found its way into a crevice between the fence and the canvas, prompting a small search party to relocate it.

Turns out that it fell beneath the mat, and, with the help of four searchers and a conveniently accessible flashlight, was picked up, rinsed off and returned to the Northern Irishman's mouth.

Morono won by unanimous decision, sweeping all three rounds on all three scorecards.  

Loser: Wallets After Weight Cuts

It's not unusual for a bout or two to be affected by adverse weight cuts, but Saturday's card was especially eventful when it came to the scales.

In fact, weight cuts led to the cancellations of three bouts that had been scheduled for the main show.

Russian 185-pounder Saparbeg Safarov's meeting with Julian Marquez was nixed because of what the UFC called "weight management issues" with Safarov. Meanwhile, another middleweight, Eryk Anders, weighed in above the contracted limit Friday and was set to forfeit 20 percent of his purse to foe Antonio Arroyo before withdrawing from the bout entirely because of "issues concerning [his] health."

Two others, co-main eventer Alhassan and main card opener Louis Smolka, also missed their agreed-upon weight targets and were set to surrender 20 percent of their purses to respective opponents Williams and Jose Quinonez. Smolka, though, wound up being pulled from the card Saturday after being "deemed medically unfit."

Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the main event between Felder and Dos Anjos was thrown together in less than a week when Dos Anjos' initial opponent, Islam Makhachev, pulled out with an injury.

UFC Fight Night 182 Full Card Results

Main Card

Rafael dos Anjos def. Paul Felder by split decision (50-45, 50-45, 47-48).

Khaos Williams def. Abdul Razak Alhassan by KO. 0:30, Round 1.

Ashley Yoder def. Miranda Granger by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 27-26).

Sean Strickland def. Brendan Allen by TKO, 1:32, Round 2.

Cory McKenna def. Kay Hansen by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Preliminary Card

Kanako Murata def. Randa Markos by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

Tony Gravely def. Geraldo de Freitas by split decision (29-28, 30-27, 28-29).

Alex Morono def. Rhys McKee by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

Don'Tale Mayes def. Roque Martinez by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27).

Fight of the Night

Paul Felder vs. Rafael dos Anjos

Performances of the Night

Sean Strickland, Khaos Williams