UFC 313: Winners and Losers, Results From Las Vegas

It was ladder-climbing time for Alex Pereira. Maybe.

The 37-year-old Brazilian had already done nearly all there is to do as a UFC fighter, including championships in two weight classes and multiple successful defenses.

But octagonal boss Dana White suggested he had even more heights to reach if he turned aside top-ranked challenger Magomed Ankalaev atop the main card at Saturday's big show at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

White said the light heavyweight king, if dominant, could achieve the dual role of 205-pound champion and No. 1 pound-for-pounder, something he'd never done.

“This is a tough fight for Alex,” White said. “Alex comes out of this the way he’s come out of every other fight? He might be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.”

The B/R combat team was in position to take in the main event and all nine bouts that preceded it and deliver a real-time list of the card's definitive winners and losers.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.

Lest anyone forget, Pereira had lost in the octagon before.

But the two-division champ had never been made to look ordinary.

That’s what the highly-credentialed Ankalaev was able to do, though, prompting him to retreat and leaving him wobbly and flummoxed several times while snatching his 205-pound title by an unpopular but fairly scored unanimous decision in Saturday’s main event.

It was indeed the second loss over 11 fights in the promotion for the Brazilian, who was KO’d by Israel Adesanya in their rematch for the middleweight title two years ago. He reeled off five straight wins in the meantime, successfully debuting at light heavyweight before winning the title in his second fight and defending three times in 2024.

His explosiveness and generally menacing manner were absent across 25 minutes against Ankalaev, who hurt Pereira with a left hand in the second and beat a gradually insistent drumbeat of kicks to his calves and belly.

And though the Russian was unsuccessful in getting Pereira to the ground on 12 takedown attempts, he did keep his powerful foe pinned against the fence for nearly six full minutes, negating Pereira’s vaunted kicking and punching prowess.

“The plan was to pressure, pressure, pressure him,” Ankalaev said. “Everyone who fights against him always counters. My job was to always be number one.”

All three judges gave Pereira the first round before each decisively scored the next three rounds for Ankalaev. Mike Bell and Derek Cleary scored the finale for the now-former champion to make it 3-2, though Sal D’Amato went ahead and gave it to Ankalaev for a 4-1 lean toward him.

The B/R card matched the majority and had it 3-2, or 48-47, for Ankalaev.

“We know that he plays that game,” Pereira said. “People might say it’s a boring style but when people get wins doing that style, it’s an incentive to do that style.”

Rafael Fiziev didn’t know the scores but he knew the score.

As the product of Azerbaijan strolled around the mat in the aftermath of his second three-round scrap with popular lightweight contender Justin Gaethje, the look on his face indicated that he knew what was about to become official.

Moments later, it was. And he was indeed left disappointed for a second time after he dropped a narrow but unanimous decision to Gaethje in a battle of ranked 155-pounders.

Gaethje, who arrived ranked third to Fiziev’s 11th, was awarded three matching scores of 29-28, which matched the B/R card, too.

“I had to come back. I had to show everybody,” said Gaethje, who’d been left face down by Max Holloway in his last fight 11 months ago. “I don’t care how far down you are, it’s on you. You have to get back on the horse.”

It was a second ride against the newly-minted 33-year-old Fiziev, whom he’d handled by majority decision at UFC 286 two years ago. Gaethje was originally scheduled to face Dan Hooker this time but got Fiziev again when Hooker was injured two weeks ago.

This time, Fiziev scored two takedowns in the first round and controlled the pace, but gradually ceded the initiative from then on. Gaethje dropped him with a right uppercut in the second round and seemed to have the better gas tank in the third, especially in a rally in the final 90 seconds.

It was Fiziev’s third straight loss and left him at 6-4 in the UFC while Gaethje is 9-5 in 14 UFC bouts and 26-5 as a pro.

When one guy is nicknamed the “Tarantula,” a submission is not a surprise.

But you might have assumed he’d have been the one getting it.

Turns out it was Brazilian freestyle striker Ignacio Bahamondes showing the mat-centric side of his game with a sudden and clinical triangle choke finish of 13th-ranked lightweight Jalin Turner.

“That speaks a lot to his skill set that he could pull off that triangle on a guy like Jalin Turner,” analyst Joe Rogan said.

Indeed, it was Turner and his 4-0 record in fights ending by submission that made it seem he’d be the guy in search of a horizontal end.

Instead, it was Bahamondes who succeeded from his back when he wrapped his legs around Turner’s shoulders, clamped down on his foe’s right wrist and squeezed until Turner’s tap brought an intervention from Mark Smith at 2:29.

It was the Chilean’s second submission in 17 career wins and boosted his UFC mark to 6-2.

“I knew I was going to submit him,” Bahamondes said. “I kept saying it in the interviews. I just felt it. I had a weird dream one day. The guy had the same shorts as him, so I guess it was him.”

Turner, who fell to 14-9 as a pro and 7-6 in the octagon, indicated after the fight that he’d retire.

Onto every fight card, a combative dud must fall.

And when it came to Saturday’s card it was the strawweight scrap between ranked contenders Amanda Lemos and Iasmin Lucindo – who engaged in 15 minutes of smothering, close-quarters combat in the main show’s second fight – that laid an egg.

Lemos, 37, emerged with a unanimous decision to justify her No. 5 ranking in the weight class, two spots ahead of the 23-year-old Lucindo, whose four-fight win streak was snapped.

All three judges scored it 29-28 in the winner’s favor.

Billed as a bout between two strikers, the encounter turned into a glorified three-round clinch initiated by Lemos from which Lucindo simply could not escape. There was almost zero competitive urgency on the feet, where the younger fighter landed just four significant strikes in 17 attempts while Lemos was a hardly scintillating 12 of 22.

Ultimately, Lemos’ 3-for-5 clip on takedowns decided things along with her nearly eight full minutes of positional control before the final horn, which sounded five seconds early.

“Maybe they’d seen enough,” blow-by-blow man Jon Anik said.

There are 299 days left in the calendar year.

But you can go ahead and mark down Mauricio Ruffy’s wheel-kick erasure of veteran King Green as one of the very best KOs of 2025, and perhaps beyond.

Analyst Daniel Cormier is certainly a believer.

“That’s one of the best KOs I have ever seen,” he said, “in my entire life.”

Ruffy, a charismatic 28-year-old member of Brazil’s “Fighting Nerds” gym, quickly suggested the abrupt stoppage, which came when he pivoted on his left side and drove his right heel into Green’s right temple, deserved a little extra consideration for performance of the night love.

“I’ve been thinking at home so many times, ‘What would it take for a fighter to get two bonuses in one night?’” Ruffy said. “Maybe this was it.”

It’s likely he’d have an endorsement from Green, who was instantly left semi-conscious as he crumbled face-first to the canvas. He was revived with blood oozing out of his nose and was still glassy eyed as he stood in the center of the cage for the official announcement.

It was the third time in four fights he failed to get through the opening five minutes.

“(Ruffy) reminds me of a big Conor McGregor,” Rogan said. “He is really a special, special talent.”

When it comes to MMA, the first M is often the most meaningful.

Though Japanese flyweight Rei Tsuruya is a world-class wrestler and had yet to meet his match in a combat sports environment, he seemed out of his element when he encountered an opponent who was either able to defend takedowns or quickly regain his feet after going down.

That opponent was Joshua Van.

The precocious 23-year-old was never fully controlled on the mat, rarely spent more than an instant in a non-standing position and dominated the action on the feet on the way to easily snatching Tsuruya’s 0 with a clear unanimous decision in Saturday’s feature prelim.

All three judges scored all three rounds for Van, turning in matching 30-27 scorecards that matched the B/R tally.

The winner stuffed 17 of 21 takedowns, spent less than four of 15 minutes under Tsuruya’s positional control and landed 117 strikes to his opponent’s 40.

The victory was 13th in 15 pro fights and sixth of seven in the octagon, while Tsuruya fell to 10-1 after winning his debut with the promotion at UFC 303 last June.

There’s a natural impression of a guy nicknamed “Hulk.”

And at 5’10” and a thickly muscled 186 pounds, Brazilian middleweight Brunno Ferreira looks like a competitive bowling ball as he charges forward winging concussive punches.

But just when you think he’s just a one-dimensional slugger, he changes the paradigm.

Ferreira was unable to consistently land telling shots against 6’3” opponent Armen Petrosyan, so he took the fight to the ground, unveiled his elite-level mat skills and got himself a sudden submission stoppage with 33 seconds to go in the second round.

“I’m a black belt in judo, you saw that takedown. I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu, you saw that submission,” Ferreira said. “You saw what Brunno Ferreira is. I am the complete package.”

Indeed, the 32-year-old lunged forward to seize the body lock that led to the takedown, started to seize Petrosyan’s back while aiming for a choke, then transitioned as his opponent began to slide away and seized the Armenian’s right arm for an armbar that ended matters at 4:27.

It was his fourth submission in 13 career wins and upped his UFC mark to 4-2.

“That was a slick transition,” Cormier said. “It looked like he was losing the back and he grabbed the arm in the scramble. Impressive stuff.”

Well, that didn’t take long.

It was only the second bout of the night before the crowd got riled up after a questionable verdict, sounding off after Brazilian prospect Mairon Santos was awarded a split decision over Francis Marshall after three tightly contested rounds at featherweight.

The fans already in their seats at T-Mobile Arena clearly disagreed with the scoring and their opinions were shared by the broadcast team, particularly Anik, who labeled it a “trash decision” and his analyst partner.

“It was a bad decision,” Cormier said. “I don’t have anything against the kid but he didn’t win that fight.”

The contrast in opinions extended to the officials.

Judge Derek Cleary gave all three rounds to Marshall, who scored a knockdown with a left hand in the first round and takedowns in rounds two and three. But he was overruled by both Chris Lee and David Lethaby, who each gave Santos the second and third for matching 29-28 scores.

The B/R card leaned Cleary’s direction and also saw it a shutout for Marshall, who immediately left the cage while Santos took the mic and claimed he’d deserved it with zero controversy.

“He had a good first round, but in the second and third he did take me down but he didn’t do (anything) with it,” Santos said. “The takedowns that he landed were just to stop the fight, not to do any damage. I thought I won fair and square.”

There’s nothing like a knockout to cleanse a palette.

Just moments after fans had been irked by a dubious decision in a featherweight bout, welterweight Carlos Leal gave them a treat by taking matters out of official hands.

The Brazilian powerhouse arrived as the show’s biggest betting favorite at 7-to-1 and dominantly handled himself, battering veteran Alex Morono to the head and body on the way to a first-round finish at 4:16.

Beaten by his own questionable verdict in his UFC debut against Joaquin Buckley, Leal left nothing to chance with a variety of strikes that beat Morono to his knees as referee Keith Peterson intervened.

“Carlos Leal made a statement,” Cormier said. “It looked like he didn’t think Morono was on his level. He literally beat him from pillar to post.”

Leal landed 79 significant strikes in less than a full round in recording his 11th career KO and evening his octagonal record at 1-1, though he still insists he’s unbeaten.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m 2-0,” he said. “I know it. (Buckley) knows it.”

Sometimes the stats don’t matter.

Brazilian middleweight Djorden Santos threw more shots, landed more shots and ended the fight in top position on the mat, but the unanimous decision defeat he suffered in the night’s first bout against 34-year-old foe Ozzy Diaz drew no scorecard ire.

Beaten on Dana White’s Contender Series and again in his formal debut with the promotion, it was Diaz who landed the more telling blows and controlled the distance and the optics down the stretch to earn his first octagonal victory.

All three judges scored it 29-28 in his direction, scoring rounds two and three for him after Santos had won the first with his frenetic, free-swinging style.

The gas tank was compromised from there, though, leaving Diaz to take over with a more methodical approach and a hard, stinging jab that battered his foe’s face.

“It was f–king tough,” Diaz said. “I had to dig deep. He was breaking and that’s when I had to keep going.”

Main Card

Magomed Ankalaev def. Alex Pereira by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47)

Justin Gaethje def. Rafael Fiziev by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Ignacio Bahamondes def. Jalin Turner by submission (triangle choke), 2:29, Round 1

Amanda Lemos def. Iasmin Lucindo by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Mauricio Ruffy def. King Green by KO (wheel kick), 2:07, Round 1

Preliminary Card

Joshua Van def. Rei Tsuruya by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Brunno Ferreira def. Armen Petrosyan by submission (armbar), 4:27, Round 2

Carlos Leal def. Alex Morono by TKO (punches), 4:16, Round 1

Mairon Santos def. Francis Marshall by split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)

Early Preliminary Card

Ozzy Diaz def. Djorden Santos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)