The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 190
Whaddya know? Turns out a Fight Night can be a Fight Day too.
ESPN's weekly UFC broadcast moved several hours forward to avoid direct competition with a busy night of boxing and playoff basketball on the network, but the show was no less combative.
In fact, the 13-bout card from the Apex facility in Las Vegas provided just as many punches, kicks and submissions as the typical after-dark variety and was still done in plenty of time for a desert sunset.
The first bout began shortly after 10 a.m. Pacific time and the final hand was raised at 4:15 p.m.
The presence of Joe Martinez making introductions in place of Bruce Buffer was the most noticeable difference. But the familiar faces of Daniel Cormier, Paul Felder and Brendan Fitzgerald manned the announce table for the ESPN broadcast, and the B/R combat sports team was in its weekend post as well.
"Guys fight better in the morning," Cormier said. "I don't know what it is, but whenever we do one of these early shows, the fights tend to be amazing."
B/R put together its definitive list of the shows winners and losers and invite any and all comments to let us know where we got it right and where our views might have diverged from yours.
Winner: Staking a Claim
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This just in: Francis Ngannou is not the UFC's lone heavyweight superstar.
The mammoth Cameroonian is atop the promotion's big-man mountain thanks to a KO of Stipe Miocic in his most recent fight, but it may not be long before the new kingpin has a credible threat in his future.
Unbeaten French export Ciryl Gane made his case for a place on the champion's radar in Saturday's main event, using his speed and expert striking to bamboozle fifth-ranked contender Alexander Volkov.
Gane, who arrived to Las Vegas ranked third, won a unanimous decision by one-sided scores of 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46. B/R agreed with the dissenting score and gave Gane four of five rounds.
He's now 9-0 as a pro and 6-0 in the UFC, including two main event wins.
"I'm feeling really nice. Volkov, to me, is one of the best in the division, so I'm really happy," he said. "I'm good. There's a little blood on my face. But I like that. This is my job."
He did it exceedingly, if not excitingly well, landing 157 strikes across 25 minutes, a number that's second-best all time in a heavyweight fight. Volkov was never in serious danger of going down or being stopped, but the Frenchman's giant edge in speed had him hesitant to let his own hands go all fight long.
Thus, Gane initiated and won most of the exchanges, with Volkov's lone consistent round coming in the fourth, when he moved forward and landed head strikes and solid kicks to Gane's legs.
The momentum stopped in the fifth, however, and Volkov was additionally jarred by a right-eye poke that stopped the fight for more than a minute.
He was declared fit to continue, however, and didn't protest the result.
Gane, on the other hand, was clear about future plans.
"The gold," he said. "Give me the challenge."
Loser: Avoiding Controversy
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The majority of Saturday's card was straightforward.
Whether fights ended by submissions, KOs or decisions, little was up for earnest discussion.
Until heavyweights Tanner Boser and Ovince Saint Preux got together in the co-headline bout, that is.
The veteran Saint Preux, a former title challenger at light heavyweight, had Boser down in the second round and was attempting to get him in position for one of his signature submission attempts.
But Boser, who was propped backward against the cage, reached up with his right arm and had his right hand on the fence as he got himself back to a vertical position. Instantly, Saint Preux's corner team claimed a fence grab and screamed for referee Jason Herzog to order Boser back to his previous position.
The order never came.
Instead, Boser stunned Saint Preux with a right knee to the head during a clinch and then drove his foe to the floor with a follow-up right hand that turned out Saint Preux's lights and forced Herzog's hand.
The broadcast team was at odds, with Cormier claiming it was a blatant fence grab while Felder suggested Boser had clenched his fist but didn't wrap his fingers in the chain links.
Multiple angles of replays seemed to support Felder's stance, and the fight's result was made official—KO at 2:31 of Round 2—for Boser, who dropped a split decision to Ilir Latifi earlier in June.
"I had to right the ship," Boser said. "I lost a very close decision three weeks ago. I disagreed with the decision, but I needed the save the summer."
Winner: Recuperative Powers
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Make no mistake, Timur Valiev was all but knocked out.
The 31-year-old was knocked down in the second round against Raoni Barcelos and proceeded to take several brutal ground strikes as referee Herb Dean stood by, looking poised to end things.
But he didn't.
Instead, Valiev remained prone as Barcelos continued the onslaught and emptied his offensive tank. Then the battered man climbed slowly to his feet and walked steadily, if not exactly speedily, back to his corner.
And 60 seconds later, it was his turn.
Valiev recovered well enough to carry the fight to the Brazilian in Round 3, convincingly winning the session to go along with success in the first and yield a majority-decision victory.
The winner got two scorecards of 29-28, while the other was even at 28-28.
"I think I did great," Valiev said. "In the second round, he caught me, but I work on my recovery. I train with [ex-lightweight champion] Frankie Edgar. Who cares about knockdowns?"
It was Valiev's third fight in the UFC and second win to go along with a no-contest. More impressively, he's now fought once as a lightweight, once at a catchweight and once at featherweight.
"Three fights, three weight classes. Who else does that?" he said. "If you don’t know, now you know. Give me the toughest guys in the division. Give me a top-15 fighter, please. I’m going to kill anyone."
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Loser: Fooling Your Physician
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Daniel Pineda wanted to keep fighting.
He was bleeding from a cut over the left eye and reeling from an accidental second-round poke in that eye by opponent Andre Fili but showed no signs of wanting a premature exit.
So little, in fact, that when asked how many fingers a cageside doctor testing his sight was holding up, he guessed. Incorrectly.
Following two instances when he guessed three when the correct answer was one, Pineda's desire to keep going was snuffed out by Dean, who waved off the fight 46 seconds into Round 2.
The result was announced as a no-contest.
"It's super disappointing," Fili said. "I put everything into this. And one stupid mistake takes it all away. I want to say something cool and exciting, but I've got nothing. I'm gutted."
Fili had landed 34 significant strikes to Pineda's 15 and scored the fight's lone takedown. He also rattled his foe with several punches, hurt him with a kick to the head and dropped him with a kick to the body.
"It sucks," Pineda said. "He was f--king me up, what can I say? I hope we can do it again."
Winner: Steely Resolve
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Kennedy Nzechukwu was in a bad way.
The 6'5" Nigerian was taken down and controlled for nearly every second of 10 minutes across two rounds with light heavyweight grappling ace Danilo Marques.
But he wasn't willing to give in.
"I see champions rallying through the hardest times," he said. "It would be disrespectful of me to not do the same."
Instead, the 29-year-old emerged for the third round with a renewed determination to land powerful strikes of his own and then did exactly that with an offensive flurry that instantly sent Marques reeling around the perimeter of the cage and prompted an intervention from referee Jason Herzog.
It only took 20 seconds.
"I knew about his takedowns. I wasn't surprised about the takedowns," Nzechukwu said. "I still rallied back. My coaches told me on the third round to push it. Suffer now, and enjoy the rest later. I just had to suffer and push, push, push."
It was his third win in four UFC fights since graduating with a contract from Dana White's Contender Series in 2018 and ninth victory in 10 professional outings overall, including six KO wins.
"His hands looked sharper than ever," Felder said. "It just took him a while to let it go."
Loser: Making Philly Wait
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The scream told the story.
Jeremiah Wells had fought 11 times over nearly nine years as a professional mixed martial artist, plying his trade in lower-profile promotions while waiting patiently for the call to the big time.
So when that finally came, it wasn't hard to tell how he felt.
The ultra-aggressive welterweight was a blur from the opening salvo against Warlley Alves and landed a decisive blow early in Round 2 to quickly get the finish in his UFC debut.
And when referee Chris Tognoni intervened, Wells found the nearest camera and let his voice loose.
"It feels fantastic," he said. "Feels like I've been waiting forever to get here, and I love being here."
Wells landed his go-home shot as a counter as Alves stepped in to deliver a right kick followed by a right hand. Wells eluded the blows and followed with a looping right of his own that clipped Alves on the left side of the head and sent him falling backward to the floor.
A brutal follow-up of hammer shots prompted Tognoni's rescue.
"If he has you hurt, he is going to finish you," said Felder, a fellow Philadelphia fighter and longtime training partner of Wells. "He's a dangerous problem in this division."
The official time was 30 seconds of the second round.
"All I need is one," he said. "Once I get that one, it's one and done.
"This is where I want to be, and I will take out anyone that gets in my way just to get here so I can put food on my family's plate and help my team anyway possible."
Winner: Going the Distance
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For the record, Yancy Medeiros and Damir Hadzovic fought 15 full minutes.
But the one the lightweight veterans will remember the most is the last one.
For different reasons.
A 34-year-old making his eighth Octagonal appearance, Hadzovic reached the final session with two rounds in the bag thanks to effective use of punches up top and kicks to his foe's lead leg.
So you can't blame the Bosnian Bomber for thinking more of the same was imminent.
It wasn't.
Instead, Medeiros finally got behind Hadzovic and got him to the floor with about three minutes remaining and began searching for a fight-ending choke. He wasn't able to secure it before Hadzovic regained his feet, but another takedown arrived a minute later and was followed by a series of elbows from the mount position.
Medeiros seized the back again and got both hooks in as his foe's gas tank ran dry into the final 45 seconds. Then he got under the chin and on to the neck with 10 seconds left as Tognoni stood by for a tap.
But it never came.
Instead, Hadzovic leaned on the two rounds he had banked and escaped with a unanimous decision—winning all three cards by 29-28 margins.
"This win means everything to me. I've worked so hard," said Hadzovic, who became a father for the first time last Sunday and has yet to meet his child. "I wanted to win so bad."
UFC Fight Night 190 Full Card Results
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Main Card
Ciryl Gane def. Alexander Volkov by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46).
Tanner Boser def. Ovince Saint Preux by KO (punch), 2:31, Round 2.
Timur Valiev def. Raoni Barcelo by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28).
Andre Fili fought Daniel Pineda to a no-contest (eye poke), 0:46, Round 2.
Tim Means def. Nicolas Dalby by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Renato Moicano def. Jai Herbert by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:34, Round 2.
Preliminary Card
Kennedy Nzechukwu def. Danilo Marques by TKO (punches), 0:20, Round 3.
Shavkat Rakhmonov def. Michel Prazeres by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:10, Round 2.
Jeremiah Wells def. Warlley Alves by KO (punches), 0:30, Round 2.
Marcin Prachnio def. Ike Villanueva by TKO (kick), 0:56, Round 2.
Julia Avila def. Julija Stoliarenko by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:19, Round 3.
Charles Rosa def. Justin Jaynes by split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29).
Damir Hadzovic def. Yancy Medeiros by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
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