The Real Winners and Losers from UFC on ABC 6

The UFC went international...again.

It was a trans-Atlantic trip to the Saudi Arabian desert this time around for the mixed martial arts conglomerate, which put on an 11-bout Fight Night show at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.

Ex-middleweight champ Robert Whittaker got his eighth main-event opportunity in nearly 12 years with the company and faced a substitute opponent in Ikram Aliskerov, who stepped into the headlining bout when unbeaten phenom Khamzat Chimaev pulled out.

Whittaker is ranked third at 185 pounds and hadn't lost to a non-champion (present or future) since 2014, having gone 14-3 after being stopped in one round by Stephen Thompson at UFC 170. His three post-"Wondeboy" defeats have come to Israel Adesanya (twice, in 2019 and 2022) and Dricus DuPlessis (in 2023).

Aliskerov was still a fresh face in the octagonal ranks, having fought and won twice (both by first-round finishes) since a win on Dana White's Contender Series in 2022.

The main card also featured matchups of ranked fighters at heavyweight, where third-ranked Sergei Pavlovich faced No. 5 Alexander Volkov; and at light heavyweight, where No. 7 Johnny Walker took on No. 9 Volkan Oezdemir.

The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and produce a real-time list of definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

"Bobby Knuckles," please stand up.

Ex-middleweight champ Robert Whittaker indulged his violent side in Saturday's main-event slot, wobbling late replacement Ikram Aliskerov with a hard right hand and quickly putting him away with a follow-up combination.

The official time was 1:49.

Still, in only 109 seconds, Whittaker was able to more than prove why he's still a weighty player at 185 pounds, where he's been a champion and craves another shot at the gold belt.

He put Aliskerov on skates with the aforementioned hard right, drove him to the fence with a head kick, then put him away with a hard right uppercut that drew a rescue from referee Marc Goddard as Whittaker took a couple more swings for good measure.

"I'm the best fighter in the world," he said. "I'm the most dangerous matchup for anyone."

Alexander Volkov was ready to extend the olive branch.

He went over to former training partner Sergei Pavlovich after their three-round heavyweight co-main event, extended his hand for a post-fight shake between old friends, and was greeted with a two-hand shove to the chest.

And afterward, when asked by Daniel Cormier, he wasn't sure why.

"I don't know," Volkov said. "Maybe he was mad at me."

Competitively speaking, at least, he had reason to be.

Though Pavlovich entered ranked third to Volkov's fifth and was typically considered the favorite, he instead wound up on the short end of a clear unanimous decision in which he was out skilled for nearly every moment.

Volkov, the tallest fighter on the UFC roster at 6'7", ignored the urge to get into a firefight with his consistently aggressive foe and simply stayed on the perimeter, strafing him with long jabs, hard crosses and intermittent kicks.

It left Pavlovich's face a bloody mess and left the judges in near synchronicity, with two scoring it 3-0 and a third calling it 2-1.

As for Volkov, he's looking for the bigger fish.

"(Heavyweight champion) Jon Jones would be a great fight for me," he said. "It would be a great challenge and I'm fighting for my legacy."

Kelvin Gastelum knew the question was coming.

So when analyst Daniel Cormier offered the mic and gave him a chance to explain exactly why the main-card bout between he and Daniel Rodriguez had to be moved from welterweight to middleweight, he could've made it all go away simply by being straightforward.

Instead, he played the evasion game.

Gastelum thanked the Saudi crowd, praised Dana White and the company brass, and said he wanted to be with the UFC "forever."

And when it came to the reason Cormier asked for, well, "it is what it is" was the best he could do.

It was good enough to let him skip the torturous weight cut, engage with a fighter who'd at least partially compromised himself trying to hit the number, and thereby escape with an official, albeit tainted, unanimous decision over Rodriguez in a spirited three-round bout.

The fighters were close through two rounds before Rodriguez, clearly exhausted, fell victim to multiple takedown attempts and smothering across the final five minutes.

It was Gastelum's 19th win as a pro, his 13th in the UFC, and the "most important of (his) life," he told Cormier.

Antonio Trocoli had a compelling tale to tell.

He was in line to fight last weekend when his would-be opponent was plucked to fill-in for Khamzat Chimaev, leaving him without a fight.

So he was quick to reply with a yes when the UFC called this week and said they had a slot open to fight unbeaten Shara Magomedov, if he could make it to Saudi Arabia and hit the required 186 pounds on the scale.

He made it. He hit the number. And when he opened the first round against Magomedov with two particularly punishing straight right hands, it looked like his vagabond story would have a remarkably happy ending.

Until it didn't.

The 6'5" Brazilian was never able to get his stubborn, agile foe to the ground in that first exchange and gradually ceded the advantage to a more active and dynamic fighter, ultimately losing via TKO midway through the third.

Trocoli landed 39 strikes for the whole fight and just 13 after the first round, compared to 39, 36 and 33 in the successive rounds for Magomedov, who improved to 13-0 as a pro and 2-0 in the UFC.

Trocoli, at 33 years old, fell to 12-4 overall.

If you like your knockouts quick and scary, Volkan Oezdemir was your guilty Saturday pleasure.

The former light heavyweight title challenger kicked off the main card in menacing fashion, reducing dynamic Brazilian striker Johnny Walker to a stiffened board in less than half a round.

"I know Johnny's crazy so you have to watch out for him in the first two minutes," said Oezdemir, referring to his foe's penchant for quick, flashy attacks, "and I had to be patient."

It may not have been patient, but it was punishing.

Oezdemir drove Walker back to the cage with the first hard shots he landed, left him semi-conscious and hunched over after another blow, then finished the job with an unfettered right uppercut as referee Jason Herzog finally moved in between the fighters.

Walker was flat on his back and motionless for a few moments after the blow landed, but he was able to get back to his stool to receive treatment soon after.

And by that point, Oezdemir has moved on to future quarry.

"The title is my destiny," he said. "I need someone at the top, right now."

It may not have been Gatti-Ward, Hagler-Hearns or even Creed-Balboa.

But the prelim finale between lightweights Jared Gordon and Nasrat Haqparast was a damned good fight by any worthwhile mention.

The 155-pound divisional veterans pelted one another with punches, elbows and kicks for nearly every moment of 15 back-and-forth minutes, and both walked away battered and bruised with swelling and scrapes around the eyes and nose.

But it's likely Hasparat will sleep a slight bit better given that he escaped with a split decision in spite of deficits in both overall strikes and significant strikes, as well as in significant strikes in two of the three rounds.

Nevertheless, he won his fourth straight since a two-fight skid that bridged 2021 and 2022, and boosted his UFC mark to 9-4 since 2017.

Gordon fell to 8-6 with a no contest in the UFC since 2017.

There's nothing like making Mom proud.

And that's precisely what Felipe Lima's corner team was counting on in between the second and third rounds on Saturday.

Their man had started strong but skidded a bit in the second five minutes and was in need of a jolt entering the final round of his inaugural UFC bout.

So his crew reminded the Swedish-based Brazilian that he'd be returning home to see his mother for the first time in two years, and that he needed to push hard to the finish to give her something to celebrate.

And clearly the kid, to whatever extent that a 26-year-old can be called a kid, listened.

Lima charged off the stool, immediately secured a takedown against veteran featherweight foe Muhammad Naimov, quickly took his back and soon cinched up the rear-naked choke that secured a finish at 1:15.

It stretched a personal win streak to 13 since he lost his pro debut.

"It feels amazing. I'm so thankful," Lima said. "I got a little sleepy in the second round and (the corner team) got to me. It meant a lot."

It probably wasn't what Dana White and the Saudi royals envisioned.

The first round of Saturday's first bout ran longer than the scripted five minutes. In the second round, a mouthpiece holder tumbled from the top of the cage and had to be scooped up by a nimble referee. And in the third, analyst Michael Bisping likened the action to "two frogs in a blender."

But the Road to UFC bantamweight finale between ChangHoLee and Xiao Long did ultimately grind to a finish and it was Lee, a South Korean in his 11th pro fight, who earned the octagonal contract with a split-decision win in which all three judges saw it 2-1, two in his favor and one for Long.

B/R agreed with the majority and also leaned to Lee, who endured some heavy strikes in the opening round but stayed the course with strong clinch fighting that included several hard knees to the body that scored well and ultimately seemed to compromise Long's effectiveness.

Nevertheless, Long clearly disagreed with the verdict and howled in disbelief when Bruce Buffer made it official.

"It wasn't part of the plan but I saw that it was working and I stayed with it," Lee said. "I knew I was the better stamina fighter."

Main Card

Robert Whittaker def. Ikram Aliskerov by KO (strikes), 1:49, Round 1

Alexander Volkov def. Sergei Pavlovich by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Kelvin Gastelum def. Daniel Rodriguez by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Shara Magomedov def. Antonio Trocoli by TKO (strikes), 2:27, Round 3

Volkan Oezdemir def. Johnny Walker by KO (strikes), 2:28, Round 1

Preliminary Card

Nasrat Haqparast def. Jared Gordon by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Felipe Lima def. Muhammad Naimov by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:15, Round 3

Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Nicolas Dalby by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Muin Gafurov def. Kyung Ho Kang by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Magomed Gadzhiyasulov def. Brendson Ribeiro by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)

ChangHo Lee def. Xiao Long by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)