Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo have each won multiple championship fights during their respective UFC careers, and the pair of former two-time titleholders engaged in a fantastic five-round Fight Night main event on Saturday in Macau.
Yan handed Figueiredo his first loss since the former flyweight champion moved up to the bantamweight division, earning a unanimous decision and firmly reinserting himself into the title conversation at 135 pounds.
Although the history books will show that Yan swept the scorecards, with all three judges seeing the bout 50-45, the fight was competitive for the full 25 minutes.
Figueiredo had won three in a row at 135 pounds, including a submission of former champion Cody Garbrandt in April, following his successful run at 125 pounds.
The 36-year-old from Brazil dragged Yan to the canvas early in the opening round and worked to take the back and impose his jiu-jitsu on his Russian opponent. Yan defended Figueiredo’s ground game well and, midway through the round, spun to end up in Figueiredo’s guard, which mitigated risk from that position before Yan also landed some solid ground strikes from the top.
Yan ended Round 2 by throwing Figueiredo down with a hard Osotogari-style trip and began turning up the volume in the third.
Despite falling behind on the scorecards and accumulating some bruises along the way, Figueiredo never wavered and had his moments throughout the match and into the later rounds. He briefly knocked Yan to the ground in the fourth but the volume was on Yan’s side in every round.
When all was said and done, Yan more than doubled Figueiredo in total significant strikes, connecting on 121 of 193 attempts, which was good for outstanding 62 per cent accuracy.
Seamlessly switching stances from southpaw to orthodox and frequently snapping Figueiredo’s head back with uppercuts from the clinch, Yan showed off the well-rounded skill set that helped him rise to the top of a stacked division currently ruled by Merab Dvalishvili.
Yan previously won a vacant title by stopping Jose Aldo, then, later, an interim title when he beat Cory Sandhagen. The 31-year-old’s performance against Figueiredo proved he’s still operating at an exceptionally high level.
Saturday’s win saw him improv to 18-5 in mixed martial arts but his record doesn’t tell the full story. Three of Yan’s losses have come by split decisions that all could’ve gone his way and one loss was by disqualification — his infamous DQ against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259 that ended his first title reign.
Yan’s most clearcut, non-controversial and most recent defeat was his five-round unanimous decision loss to Dvalishvili in March 2023.
Dvalishvili has since become champion. He won the belt in September, when he won a decision over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 and had said that if Figueiredo could beat Yan, then he would’ve considered Figueiredo the No. 1 contender for his title.
Yan challenged Dvalishvili to a rematch during his post-fight interview Saturday, and the champ posted to social media that he was impressed by Yan’s performance and that it was a great fight between both athletes.
O’Malley remains in the title picture as the No. 1-ranked contender and one of the UFC’s biggest stars. Undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov is ranked No. 2 and coming off an impressive win over Sandhagen.
The UFC has not yet determined Dvalishvili’s first title defence opponent, but there are multiple options and numerous other high-quality matchups to make at 135 pounds heading into next year.
Yan Xiaonan bounced back from her five-round title fight loss to reigning strawweight champion Weili Zhang in April at UFC 300 with a thorough victory over Tabatha Ricci in Saturday’s co-main event.
Zhang was at Galaxy Arena, so she heard first hand Xiaonan’s request for a championship rematch.
Muslim Salikhov ended his two-fight skid in style by landing a spinning-wheel kick knockout of Song Kenan in the opening round of their welterweight contest.
Salikhov, 40, has been throwing that exact kick throughout his UFC career, and on Saturday he became the first fighter in UFC history to finish two fights with the technique. He also used it to put away André Fialho in 2022.
Gabriella Fernandes pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, at least according to the betting odds, as she submitted kickboxing standout Wang Cong on Saturday.
Fernandes wobbled Cong with a head kick, dropped her with an overhand left and locked in a rear-naked choke that put the roughly 10-to-1 favourite to sleep in the second round.
Cong is a former champion from the kickboxing world — she even holds a win over UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko on her kickboxing record — and had a 62-second knockout win in her UFC debut in August, which added to the hype of her budding MMA career.
China’s Zhang Mingyang had the crowd roaring in the opening bout of the main card by extending his winning streak to 11 in a row.
Mingyang used a beautiful standing elbow strike to put down Ozzy Diaz in light-heavyweight action. The 26-year-old is now 2-0 in the UFC after debuting earlier this year with a first-round knockout of Brendson Ribeiro in February.
With his aggressive style and 100 per cent finishing rate, Mingyang is a fun 205-pounder to keep an eye on heading into next year.
In more notable 205-pound action, Carlos Ulberg picked up the best win of his UFC career by outduelling one-time title challenger Volkan Oezdemir over 15 minutes.
Ulberg improved to 11-1 as a pro with his seventh consecutive victory in the UFC. The City Kickboxing team member should continue moving up the official rankings and get another big matchup in his next outing because he was the No. 10-ranked contender and Oezdemir was ranked No. 8 in the division before the event.
On the preliminary card, Feng Xiaocan was stretchered out of the cage and taken to hospital for precautionary reasons after being knocked out by Shi Ming in a strawweight bout.
Ming landed a head kick that knocked Xiaocan out cold during the third round of their 115-pound contest. Xiaocan was unconsciousness for several minutes. She was initially awake but unresponsive before she began speaking with her coach in the ambulance. The UFC reported she had full feeling in all her extremities, had no fractures, and was not experiencing any pain, dizziness or headaches.
Also in the prelims, flyweight prospect Lone'er Kavanagh improved to 8-0 as a pro by handing Jose Ochoa his first pro loss in a solid 125-pound scrap. Both fighters have bright futures in the division.
Bantamweight Xiao Long and flyweight Dong-hun Choi also had standout performances, earning knockout wins over Quang Le and Kiru Singh Sahota, respectively.
The last UFC event held in Macau was in 2014, and it was headlined by Michael Bisping, who happened to be on the commentary team Saturday.
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