The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 193

It was the perfect card for anyone with late-night plans.

The UFC's weekly Fight Night show from its Apex facility was still packed to overflowing after a late cancellation trimmed it to 12 bouts across seven weight classes, but the fighters made scheduling academic by combining for seven early endings—five by KO/TKO, another by submission and one by no-contest.

Big-hitting light heavyweights Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker were on the marquee in the main event, marking just the ninth time in the promotion's history that two Brazilians met atop a fight card.

Santos was one of the first eight when he met Glover Teixeira on another Fight Night show in November.

ESPN was in its recurring position for the broadcast, featuring Brendan Fitzgerald and Daniel Cormier at the cage-side announce table, Heidi Androl working the room with breaking news and features and Din Thomas chiming in intermittently with in-fight technical analysis.

The B/R combat sports team was doing its typical weekend work as well, taking in the whole show on the way to putting together the definitive list of winners and losers for the card.

Click through to get a look at our takeaways, and let us know what you think with a comment.

Loser: Main Event Momentum

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You had to feel for Cormier and Fitzgerald.

After spending much of the broadcast touting the impending mayhem between 205-pound finishing machines Santos and Walker, they seemed at a loss for how it veered so far off course. Rather than consistently engaging and exchanging heavy blows with bad intent, both fighters seemed content to trade intermittent kicks from distance with only the occasional flurry of punches.

"I would've bet anything you wanted that we wouldn't have seen a fourth round tonight," Cormier said as the bout wound past 15 minutes. "Anything you wanted."

Fitzgerald pointed out pre-fight odds for either man to win on the scorecards exceeded 8-1.

As it turned out, the dance did go the full 25 minutes before all three judges gave it to Santos by 48-47 scores.

"It was super hard to train for him. He's unpredictable," Santos said. "I tried to do my best. I tried to knock him out. It's hard to get close to him. He's big, but he moves very fast."

Indeed, Walker's corner spent time between each round encouraging their man, who stands 6'6" and arrived with 15 knockouts in 18 career wins, to stay at long range and strive to outpoint Santos. Instead, after splitting the first four rounds, Santos landed the single most memorable shot of the fight—a long left hand—in the fifth, which was apparently enough to get the job done.

The 37-year-old former title challenger landed 10 strikes to Walker's eight in the final five minutes. Neither man landed more than 11 strikes in any round, and Walker wound up with a slight 48-44 edge in landed strikes across the entire fight.

Across the final four rounds, though, the edge was 41-39 in the direction of Santos, who arrived as the No. 5 contender in the division but was also performing for the last time on his current deal.

"It's my last fight on my contract," he said. "Hey, Dana [White], let's renew it."

Winner: Getting It Right

Welcome to the 21st century.

The UFC proved its adoption of instant replay was a good idea in Saturday's co-main event, when review of an accidental head clash changed a would-be result from a submission to a no-contest.

Middleweights Kyle Daukaus and Kevin Holland were the principals in the abbreviated bout, which was called at 3:43 of the first round when Holland tapped out to a standing rear-naked choke.

But the finishing maneuver came moments after a fight-changing headbutt, which occurred as Daukaus ducked under Holland's sweeping left hook.

The Philadelphia-based fighter came up, and his head smashed directly into the left side of Holland's jaw and appeared to knock him out for a moment as he crashed face-first to the canvas.

Referee Dan Miragliotta pounced and looked ready to wave things off, but held off as a revived Holland began fighting back. Still, Daukaus took advantage of his dazed foe and began chasing submissions, ultimately getting behind Holland as they stood along the fence. He locked in the choke and prompted the submission, but the fight's end preceded a gathering of officials on the venue floor.

Miragliotta consulted with replay official Herb Dean, UFC executive Marc Ratner and members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission for several minutes.

He initially looked poised to award Daukaus a win because the head clash was accidental but changed his mind and decided on the no-contest verdict.

Cormier was vocal throughout the deliberation, suggesting anything other than a no-contest would be grossly unfair to Holland and wondering why the commission had nothing in place for such an event. 

Dean and Miragliotta repeatedly whispered to one another to avoid ESPN's microphones before the result was finalized. At one point, Dean audibly said "if you don't feel right about it, it can be a no-contest."

Moments later, it was.

"I honestly believe it's the right thing," Cormier said. "When something like that happens it's a no-contest. It's hard to reward somebody like that. It seems like the right thing was done. Great on Miragliotta. He realized that he made a mistake and went and fixed it."

Winner: Competitive Titillation

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Some expected instant fireworks. Others expected a buzzworthy finish.

Everyone expected action.

And while it wasn't quite the car-crash violence that might have resulted, welterweights Niko Price and Alex Oliveira still produced 15 compelling minutes of competition before Price emerged with a narrow unanimous-decision victory.

"Whenever it goes to a decision, I'm never happy," the Floridian said. "I'm very confident in my cardio, and that's 100 percent what did it. That's what I worked on in my camp."

Indeed, the fight seemed in the balance after an initial round that Price earned with more than three minutes of ground control time before Oliveira rallied with sharper strikes and a takedown of his own in the second.

Oliveira landed another series of quality shots to begin the third but was noticeably tired as the session reached its halfway point and was taken and kept down in the final minute.

Price landed 29 significant strikes in the third to Oliveira's 27 and earned 29-28 margins on all three official scorecards. He improved to 7-5 with two no-contests in the Octagon across 14 bouts since debuting at UFC 207 in 2016.

"Bring me the top 15, the top 10, the top five, whoever you want," Price said. "Bring it to me, and I can do it. Any big names or ranked people, let's go. I'm very prepared."

Winner: Validating a Nickname

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Calling yourself The Great is a risky proposition.

But Alexander Hernandez was certainly up to the task.

The lightweight, who turned 29 on Friday, justified the nickname in devastating fashion with a walk-off first-round KO of late substitute Mike Breeden in their main card opener.

Hernandez was scheduled to fight Leonardo Santos but instead got Breeden on a little more than a week's notice. The late arrival came in as the biggest underdog on the card at +445 (bet $100 to win $445) but was aggressive and eager to engage throughout the fight's initial minute.

It proved his undoing when Hernandez landed a left-right combination that left him wobbly and reeling back toward the fence. And the contest ended soon after when another right landed on Breeden's left ear and immediately dropped him to the floor. Referee Mark Smith leaped in at 1:20 before another shot was thrown.

It was Hernandez's fifth win in eight UFC appearances, and he used his post-fight platform to call out Santos for the fight that was initially scheduled to occur.

Breeden, who lost on Dana White's Contender Series in 2020, was making his official debut in the Octagon.

Winner: Warning the Family

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What's the fastest way to get a flyweight title shot? 

Maybe it's beating up the champion's sister.

That's what unbeaten 125-pounder Casey O'Neill did in a scheduled three-round scrap with veteran Antonina Shevchenko, whose title-holding sibling, Valentina, was in the corner watching.

The 23-year-old O'Neill was 5-0 in a pair of smaller promotions before debuting in the UFC in February and rattling off two straight finishes—one by TKO and one by submission.

She took care of Shevchenko, a veteran gatekeeper who had gone 3-3 in six UFC fights since arriving in 2018, earning the stoppage late in the second round after getting the 36-year-old to the floor, establishing a mount position and landing a series of ground strikes until Chris Tognoni stopped it at 4:47. 

It was O'Neill's fifth stoppage in eight overall wins.

Valentina Shevchenko defended her title for the sixth time with a fourth-round stoppage of Lauren Murphy at UFC 266 in Las Vegas at the end of September.

"I'm here," O'Neill said. "I'm here to fight hard, and I'll finish everybody."

Loser: Witnessing a Celebration

It's one thing to get knocked out.

It's another thing to get knocked out and have your conqueror go ballistic over you.

That's what happened to Belgian featherweight Gaetano Pirrello on Saturday's prelim card, when he was KO'd by Douglas Silva de Andrade and was still prone as his Brazilian foe flipped and flopped around the Octagon in gleeful celebration.

The abrupt end came after just 2:04 of the opening round, when Pirrello was moving forward with a left kick and ran straight into a left hook that sent him tumbling backward on to the mat.

A trio of ground strikes drew a rescue from Tognoni and set Silva de Andrade on his gymnastic way, with a standing back flip followed by another off the fence and yet another from the top of the cage.

He nearly tumbled on to his victim after the final move, which prompted in-cage officials to settle him down before he attempted another maneuver.

Silva de Andrade is 5-4 in the UFC since 2014, while Pirrello fell to 0-2 in the promotion and 15-8-1 overall.

UFC Fight Night 193 Full Card Results

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Main Card

Thiago Santos def. Johnny Walker by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47).

Kevin Holland and Kyle Daukaus fought to no-contest (accidental headbutt), 3:43, Round 1.

Niko Price def. Alex Oliveira by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Krzysztof Jotko def. Misha Cirkunov by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

Alexander Hernandez def. Mike Breeden by KO (punch), 1:20, Round 1.

Preliminary Card

Jared Gordon def. Joe Solecki by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

Casey O'Neill def. Antonina Shevchenko by TKO (punches), 4:47, Round 2.

Karol Rosa def. Bethe Correia by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).

Jamie Mullarkey def. Devonte Smith by TKO (punches), 2:51, Round 2.

Douglas Silva de Andrade def. Gaetano Pirrello by KO (punch), 2:04, Round 1.

Stephanie Egger def. Shanna Young by TKO (elbow), 2:22, Round 2.

Alejandro Perez def. Johnny Eduardo by submission (armbar), 4:13, Round 2.