Anthony Hernandez and Michel Pereira both entered their Fight Night main event riding lengthy winning streaks, but it was Hernandez who was able to move up in the middleweight division with Pereira now headed back to the drawing board.
Hernandez overcame some early adversity to pick up his sixth consecutive victory thanks to a dominant performance in Saturday’s main event at the UFC Apex that ended with a fifth-round technical knockout.
Pereira started quickly by attacking the body like many of Hernandez’s past opponents have. That came as no surprise after all since Pereira’s three most recent fights prior to Saturday lasted only a combined 3:01.
Once Hernandez withstood the initial aggressive push from Pereira, though, the American settled down and went to work with pressure of his own.
Pereira saw a second round for the first time since 2022 and Hernandez was relentless with takedown attempts, strikes and constantly advanced his position and looked for submission openings whenever they’d present themselves.
By the start of the third round, the Brazilian was visibly exhausted while Hernandez was in his comfort zone. Hernandez dragged the action back down to the canvas right in front of his corner and battered Pereira for nearly the full round and it was more of the same in the fourth.
There was nothing fluffy about the slicing elbows “Fluffy” was landing throughout the fight. One that connected in the fifth round caused a cut on Pereira’s head to open. He ended up landing a personal best 197 significant strikes in the fight, which outdid his previous career high by more than 100, to go along with his 10 takedowns and 15:42 of control time before he secured the stoppage.
Hernandez, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Friday, was the No. 13-ranked contender in the 185-pound division entering the night and should get a top-10 opponent his next time out as he gets closer to the title picture. He has finished five of his six opponents on his current streak.
Pereira was No. 14 in the middleweight rankings prior to the loss and had won eight in a row.
Saturday’s card marked the ninth UFC event this year that was headlined by a middleweight contest, which speaks to how interesting that weight class has been this year.
It ended up being a decision-filled night, with nine of 11 fights requiring the judges.
One preliminary bout between strawweights Melissa Martinez and Alice Ardelean should’ve been stopped due to a clean body shot, yet the bout was allowed to continue due to an incorrect call from the referee, who initially believed it to be a low blow.
Kyler Phillips got off to a strong start against Rob Font in the co-main event, however the rising bantamweight could not maintain the early ground control he established and Font began taking over the fight on the feet.
Font established his educated jab like he has so many times before and he ended up earning a unanimous decision win. Font had lost four of his past five prior to facing Phillips but showed why he maintained his spot inside the top 10 at 135 pounds.
Charles Johnson became the first fighter on the UFC roster to fight four times in 2024 and he improved to 4-0 this calendar year, winning a fast-pace flyweight contest over Sumudaerji.
The only men’s flyweight competitor with a longer active winning streak is the current champion, Alexandre Pantoja, who has won six in a row.
The main card opened with a bloody bout between seasoned competitors Darren Elkins and Daniel Pineda. It looked like Pineda had Elkins trapped in a guillotine choke in the opening minute, but Elkins used excellent submission defence plus plenty of grit to overcome the frequent grappling attacks. Elkins cut Pineda open with elbows on several occasions and his pace stayed steady as Pineda’s gas tank waned.
Elkins, 40, earned his 19th career UFC victory, and afterwards, Pineda announced his retirement from the sport. Pineda, 39, retires with a pro record of 28-17 and three no-contests but ended his second UFC stint on a three-fight losing streak.
UFC newcomer Cameron Smotherman’s wild week concluded with his first UFC win. Smotherman made his promotional debut on less than a week’s notice and upset the seasoned Jake Hadley by unanimous decision. Smotherman overcame a nasty eye poke in the second round for which Hadley was deducted a point and Smotherman landed more strikes in all three rounds to introduce himself to the UFC’s 135-pound division.
Canadian bantamweight Brad Katona put in a spirited effort but failed to become the first fighter to defeat touted Brazilian Jean Matsumoto in a featured preliminary bout as Matsumoto improved to 16-0 with a unanimous decision win.