UFC Fight Night: Prates closes out stellar rookie campaign in style

Carlos Prates put the finishing touches on an incredible rookie campaign inside the UFC Octagon on Saturday evening, closing out the 100th Fight Night event at the UFC APEX with a walk-off knockout win over Neil Magny in the closing seconds of the first round.

The main event began with Magny looking to test Prates’ takedown defence and keep the streaking first-year welterweight from being able to get loose with his hands, constantly looking to close the distance and snatch up single legs, even if only to occupy the Brazilian’s focus. But once Prates showed he could stay upright and began to read Magny’s level changes, the momentum shifted in his favour, prompting “The Nightmare” to begin stalking the tenured veteran more and more.

Once he got Magny moving backwards beyond the tram line, Prates worked to pin him along the fence, looking for the opportunity to let loose with his marksmen-like striking. A short right hand put Magny on shaky footing at one point before Prates clipped the Colorado native with a left hand to the temple that sent him crashing to the canvas in a heap with just 10 seconds remaining in the first round.

It’s the fourth UFC victory — and fourth finish inside the Octagon — in 10 months for Prates, who earned the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage in MMA last fall with a second-round stoppage win on Dana White’s Contender Series. He’s looked completely unbothered and unfazed while methodically working his way up the divisional ranks during his first year on the roster, and dispatched Magny with impressive poise and swiftness on Saturday.

The victory should catapult him into the Top 15 when the rankings update next week, and it would be surprising if Prates didn’t get his wish to compete next February in Sydney, Australia, given all the success he’s had through his first year. He called for a bout with streaking contender Jack Della Maddalena, who has been sidelined since beating Gilbert Burns at UFC 299 in March, but also offered Fortis MMA representative and 10th-ranked welterweight Geoff Neal as an intriguing back-up option for the UFC 312 pay-per-view on February 8 at Qudos Bank Arena.

How he begins his sophomore campaign will be determined somewhere in the coming weeks, but for now, it’s time to give Prates his due for delivering one of the best rookie years in recent UFC history.

Four fights, four wins, four finishes — that’s nightmare fuel for every other welterweight.

DE RIDDER DEBUTS WITH HARD FOUGHT WIN

Former ONE Championship two-division champion Reinier de Ridder came away from his first foray into the UFC cage with a hard-fought, third-round submission win over Gerald Meerschaert in Saturday’s penultimate contest.

Most expected a grappling match between these two decorated submission specialists, but the first was contested largely on the feet, with Meerschaert getting the better of things until getting clipped with a left hand in the closing seconds of the round. The action shifted to the canvas in the second, with the pair engaging in a quality cat-and-mouse battle on the mat, transitioning through attacks and defences, counters and re-adjustments.

But de Ridder was able to put the fading Meerschaert on the deck early in the third, quickly attacking an arm-triangle choke and drawing out the tap to wrap up a finish in his promotional debut.

The 34-year-old is a wild card addition to the 185-pound ranks as an experienced standout from another promotion and a specialist in an age of generalists inside the Octagon. Beating “GM3” is a strong debut effort, and it will be interesting to see how hard the UFC look to push de Ridder going forward, especially with middleweight currently in the midst of a changing of the guard.

MIXED RESULTS FOR DANA WHITE’S CONTENDER SERIES DEBUTANTS

Mansur Abdul-Malik and Cortavious Romious became the second and third members of the Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’24 to debut inside the Octagon, and the newcomers had mixed results in the first UFC starts.

Abdul-Malik kicked off the main card by steamrolling Dusko Todorovic, hurting the returning Serbian fighter in the opening exchange and never really allowing him back into the fight. The green, but dangerous middleweight punished Todorovic for repeatedly chasing leg entanglements, finishing him under a flood of heavy ground-and-pound just after the midway point of the opening stanza.

Two fights later, Romious stepped in with Gaston Bolanos, pairing off with “The Dreamkiller” for an entertaining bout where he landed on the wrong side of a unanimous decision verdict. While the contest was closer than the scores suggest, there were moments where Romious’ decision-making and inexperience cost him, including in the third round, where he tried to jump the back and ended up with his shoulders pinned to the canvas.

Cody Haddon kicked things off for this year’s crop of graduates a few weeks back with a win over Dan Argueta, while a fourth member of the graduating class, flyweight prospect Lone’er Kavangh, is set to make his debut later this month in Macau against fellow newcomer Jose Ochoa.

CANADIAN ROBERTSON KEEPS ROLLING

Gillian Robertson picked up her third win of 2024 on Saturday evening, out-hustling Luana Pinheiro in a battle of ranked fighters in the strawweight division.

Born in Niagara Falls and fighting out of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., the 29-year-old Robertson used a dominant third round to secure her second straight decision win and third victory of the year, leaning on her superior grappling to shift things into her favour in the decisive third frame.

Robertson has been one of the most active fighters on the roster since arriving in the UFC following a stint on Season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter, with Saturday being her 18th appearance in a little over seven years. She struggled with consistency early in her UFC tenure and fought up at flyweight for a time, but has been largely successful since moving back to strawweight to begin her 2023 campaign, posting a 4-1 mark in five fights.

Saturday’s win over Pinheiro was her second straight decision victory over a ranked, respected opponent, and should create even bigger opportunities for “The Savage” whenever she kicks off her 2025 campaign next year.

FINISHES GALORE TO OPEN THE SHOW

After last weekend’s event clocked in as the third longest event in terms of overall fight time, Saturday’s centennial Fight Night event at the UFC APEX began with a bushel of finishes, as if to bring balance to the MMA universe.

Melissa Mullins took half a round to figure out she had a considerable advantage on the ground over promotional newcomer Klaudia Sygula, but once she did, the British bantamweight got down to business. After climbing to mount in the waning moments of the opening round, “No Mess” immediately put the Polish debutant back on the canvas, where she again advanced to mount and pounded out a finish.

In the next fight, Tresean Gore needed less than 90 seconds to defeat Antonio Trocoli, clamping onto the same high-elbow guillotine choke he used to submit Josh Fremd in his last appearance more than two years ago. While injuries have slowed the progression of “Mr. Vicious” since his time on Season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter, the now 30-year-old middleweight remains an intriguing, athletic talent to track in the 185-pound weight class.

The action shifting to Sportsnet didn’t slow the progression of finishes, as Da’Mon Blackshear took full advantage of his length to hurt and then submit bantamweight veteran Cody Stamann in the first bout of the televised prelims.

The rangy American grappler needed a couple minutes to find his timing and range, but after stinging Stamann with a flying knee along the fence and collapsing him to the canvas with strikes, Blackshear went hunting for the submission finish. First came a mounted guillotine attempt, followed by a neck crank, but it was the rear-naked choke in the final minute that finally left Stamann with no choice but to tap.

In the first welterweight bout of the night, Charles Radtke didn’t spend any time feeling things out with Matthew Semelsberger. Instead, “Chuck Buffalo” pressured forward, connected with his sudden left hand, and then went on the hunt, quickly connecting with a series of powerful blows that put Semelsberger on rubber legs and prompted the stoppage.

After falling to headliner Carlos Prates last time out in June, this was the kind of emphatic bounce-back effort the confident Chicago-based welterweight needed to get things moving in the right direction again.

The same could be said for Elizeu dos Santos, who marched into the Octagon and made quick work of short-notice replacement opponent Zach Scroggin, who caught a right hand to the temple in the early going and was officially dispatched soon after.

It’s the first time since the UFC 296 at the end of last year that an event has opened with five consecutive finishes.