UFC on ESPN 64: Live Winners and Losers, Results

It was another chapter in the Brandon Moreno story.

The "Assassin Baby" had been one of the UFC's most recognizable fighters during a successful second run with the company, winning three championship bouts amid a six-fight stretch in which he was either pursuing or defending the flyweight title.

He lost it two years ago but had been on a comeback tour that stopped Saturday in Mexico City, where he met one-time failed title challenger Steve Erceg in a duel of ranked 125-pound contenders at the CDMX Arena.

Ranked second in the weight class, Moreno came in off a five-round decision over Amir Albazi in November, while Erceg dropped consecutive fights to current champ Alexandre Pantoja and former Moreno victim Kai Kara-France in 2024.

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

You could tell this one was important to Moreno.

The popular ex-champion had fought three times in Mexico City prior to Saturday night’s main event, losing decisions in 2017 and 2024 and fighting to a three-round draw in 2019.

So when Bruce Buffer ended the suspense by saying the three official scorecards were all 49-46 in his direction as opposed to Erceg’s, it was easy to understand the shouts and tears.

“I’ve gone through so much to be here,” he said. “I love these people.”

It was his second straight win since the most recent of those Mexico City fights, a split-decision loss to Brandon Royval on a Fight Night show 13 months ago. And it places him in position to at least ask for, if not get, another headline opportunity when the promotion returns to Mexico for a pay-per-view show in Guadalajara in September.

“I can move the needle,” Moreno said.

He took his time moving it in the fight against Erceg, though, winging the occasional long-distance shot early as the Australian patiently boxed from range and scored well with jabs and intermittent kicks to Moreno’s legs. But the hometown hero began upping his output later, and sealed the verdict with superior output and damage in the final two rounds.

The B/R card ultimately swung in his direction, three rounds to two.

For Erceg, it was a third straight loss after he’d reached the promotion and won three straight. His corner team pleaded with him to boost his work rate as the fight continued, but he never got beyond a target-practice mindset that had the crowd whistling and booing in the middle rounds.

“I thought I landed pretty well. But obviously it wasn’t enough, I guess,” he said. “My corner said they wanted more volume. But I’ll be back.”

His spirit was willing, but Drew Dober’s senses were long gone.

The popular lightweight veteran is known for his fondness for brawling, but his desire to keep going bordered on frightening in the aftermath of a first-round exchange with Manuel Torres.

Dober was on the wrong end of a perfect one-two combination punctuated by a right hand that crashed into the right side of his jaw and sent him to his knees, where he clung to Torres’ leg and squarely into the path of 15 unfettered hammer fists until referee Mike Beltran intervened.

Torres stepped away and Dober regained his feet and assumed a fighting stance, confusedly wobbling toward Torres as Beltran and other officials stepped in between. Dober was escorted to his stool and seemed to take several moments before he realized he’d been finished.

Eventually, reason reigned and the fighters embraced after the official announcement of the TKO at 1:45 of Round 1. It was Torres’ fourth win in five UFC fights while Dober lost for the third straight time and slipped to 13-11 with the promotion.

“It’s incredible,” Torres said. “I’m very proud of what I’ve done.”

It wasn't the main event or the co-main, but it was easy to find fans who were jazzed up about the prospect of a Kelvin Gastelum-Joe Pyfer fight on Saturday.

But just when it seemed imminent, it was deemed impossible.

For the moment anyway.

The Gastelum-Pyfer bout was scratched from the card just a few hours before the show with what the UFC labeled a Pyfer illness. The popular Philadelphia fighter took to Instagram to discuss the pull-out and stake a claim for a re-do on home turf.

“Just wanna say my heart is broken I couldn’t fight today I got super sick and hopefully we can reschedule this fight for a few weeks from now,” Pyfer said. “Unfortunately comes with the territory of traveling outside the states. Never again my apologies guys. We’ll be back.”

It was a powerful moment.

Within seconds of the tap-out that signaled the end of Édgar Cháirez’s bout with CJ Vergara, the victorious Mexican was awash in the support of a vocal hometown crowd.

And as the enormity of his achievement, a win in his first career main-card bout–just a year after his since-deceased grandfather sold a truck to pay for his grandson’s needed surgery–arrived, the 29-year-old sank to his knees and sobbed.

The tears subsided as he returned to the center of the octagon to hear the official announcement, but they returned as soon as referee Marc Goddard raised his hand in victory. 

“Last year he was here with me,” Cháirez said. “Now I know he’s in the first row in heaven.”

He’d have been proud of his grandson’s performance, in which the youngster showed off upgraded boxing skills, landed a hard left hook that set up a takedown and quickly wrapped his right arm around the stricken Vergara’s chin to draw the surrender at 2:30 of Round 1.

The bout was upgraded to the main portion when Pyfer pulled out of the date with Gastelum.

“I’m very happy. I have a lot to show,” Cháirez said. “We’re getting some tacos.”

A 10-win career and four wins in five previous UFC outings provided ample evidence that 20-year-old bantamweight phenom Raul Rosas Jr. is a good frontrunner.

But Saturday night showed he’s got some mettle in there, too.

The Mexican favorite was clearly ahead as his fight with second-stint octagonal veteran Vince Morales moved into the final round, and the Las Vegas-based Morales was suitably desperate while chasing come-from-behind finishes via anaconda and d’arce choke.

Rosas found himself in some compromising positions as the adept Morales reversed takedowns and seized his neck, but the youngster showed no signs of panic as he patiently worked himself to safety and ultimately survived until the final horn sounded.

All three judges rewarded him with 29-28 scorecard verdicts, providing an unprecedented fifth UFC win to a fighter who’s still barely out of his teens.

“I know it wasn’t my best performance, but I’m getting more experience. I’m wiser,” Rosas said. “You’ll see me evolve throughout the years. Whoever’s gonna take me to that belt, let’s get it.”

The doctor was on.

Mexican bantamweight David Martinez, who heals people as an orthopedic surgeon when he’s not beating them up, got the loudest pop of the night when he put opponent Saimon Oliveira to sleep with a vicious first-round striking series in his UFC debut.

Arriving as the biggest favorite on the show, Martinez followed a Contender Series win by patiently stalking Oliveira as he flitted from side to side around the octagonal perimeter and only occasionally stood still long enough to meaningfully engage.

The decisive sequence finally came when Oliveira overreached as he fired a long left hand, leaving himself open for a precise right-hand counter that sent him stumbling. A follow-up combination from Martinez was punctuated by a knee that drove the Brazilian to the floor.

A series of hammer fists ultimately drew a rescue from Goddard at 4:38.

“My god,” analyst Laura Sanko said, “what can this man not do?”

Many in the Mexico City crowd came to see the transition of Ronaldo Rodriguez from local sensation to bona fide UFC flyweight powerhouse. 

But Kevin Borjas was in no mood to let the popular youngster get over.

Instead, the Peruvian export took his frenetic foe to school with a classic display of patient stand-up fighting, consistently rattling Rodriguez with hard right-hand counters and dropping him several times on the way to an upset decision in an entertaining main-card opener.

All three judges saw it for Borjas, two with 30-27 scores and the third by 29-28, to give him his first UFC win after a Contender Series defeat and two more losses in official octagonal bouts. 

The B/R card agreed with the dissenter and gave Borjas the first two rounds before Rodriguez edged Round 3 as he desperately sought a fight-ending sequence that never came.

It was such a clear win that analyst Daniel Cormier, wary of officiating hijinks as the final round ended, said “If he loses I’m leaving. If he somehow loses this fight, I’m outta here.”

It was Rodriguez’s first UFC loss after his own Contender Series win and two more since.

“I can hurt anybody,” Borjas said. “I know the power that I have.”

The buzz surrounding Ateba Gautier was loud. But rugged Bolivian middleweight Jose Daniel Medina was determined to find out if it was warranted.

Well, after precisely 3 minutes, 32 seconds, the verdict is in: It’s legit.

Having already raised eyebrows with a finish on the Contender Series, Gautier pushed the envelope a bit further with a concussive knee to the chin that felled Medina like a tree and earned him a viral victory in his official UFC debut.

In the aftermath, the company brass was seeing the possibilities.

“That’s about as wide-eyed as I’ve seen our matchmaker, Mick Maynard, after a fight,” blow-by-blow man Jon Anik said. Cormier seconded the emotion, suggesting the victorious Cameroonian reminded him of a former heavyweight kingpin.

“The first time I reacted like this, it was about Francis Ngannou,” Cormier said. “If he can knock people out like Francis did, we’ll have a star.”

To hear Gautier tell it, he’s already there.

“I told you, I can knock anyone out,” he said. “I know who I am. I know what I have on me. Who’s next?”

The record shows that Loopy Godinez defeated Julia Polastri by unanimous decision in a strawweight scrap that was certainly competitive and intermittently violent, particularly in a fun third round, but won’t otherwise be remembered for its whole as much as some of its parts.

Instead, it may be recalled for the impact it made on Cormier.

The former two-division nearly split at the seams when Godinez caught a kick from Polastri in the first round, then took the opportunity to get her opponent in the air and slam her to the mat in a maneuver that’d be just as recognizable in a WWE ring as a UFC cage.

Cormier shrieked and labeled it a “Sycho Sid powerbomb,” then asked about it afterward, allowing Godinez to playfully announce the debut of Loopy Airlines.

“I love getting people in the air,” she said.

He was a little less enthralled a few minutes later after microphones overheard Godinez telling her corner team between rounds that she needed to relieve herself, which left him to suggest he’d be staring at the fighter’s shorts to see just how desperate the need was.

Turns out it didn’t factor into the final five minutes and Godinez exited the cage without incident after getting matching 29-28 scores in her direction on all three scorecards, all but guaranteeing she’ll maintain or improve on her No. 11 ranking.

“UFC knows that I’m ready to fight anybody, anytime, anywhere,” she said.

Rafa Garcia was clearly happy. 

His home-country crowd was happy, too.

In fact, the only one in Mexico City who looked less than pleased was Vinc Pichel.

The 42-year-old lightweight was poised to earn an eighth win in his 12th UFC fight but the guys with the scorecards didn’t buy in and instead awarded the local hero a unanimous decision victory.

The idea that Garcia did enough to earn a win wasn’t outrageous, but the idea that two of three judges gave him all three rounds–considering Pichel landed more strikes in each of the first two rounds, including a 32-21 edge in significant shots in the second–and the shutout seems suspect. 

Judge Sal D’Amato saw it 29-28 for Garcia, too–giving Pichel the second round–which boosted the winner’s octagonal record to 5-4 while Pichel instead slipped to 7-5. The B/R card sided with Pichel, two rounds to one, giving him the second and third.

“I was very nervous to perform here in this arena,” Garcia said. “These are my people.”

Jamall Emmers was a prohibitive favorite.

And after rising from an early takedown by submission-seeking opponent Gabriel Miranda, he went right to work with his hands and quickly scored what amounted to an easy first-round TKO when Miranda was left defenseless in barely more than four minutes.

The official time, in fact, was 4:06.

“When you are near a 5-to-1 favorite, that is how you take care of business,” Anik said. “Everything he said in the fighter meetings sort of played out in the fight.”

Indeed, once the California-based featherweight shook Miranda off his back and got to his feet, he quickly began landing strikes for which the Brazilian had no answer. Miranda was dumped with a long right hand at the three-minute mark, was left wobbly with a follow-up punch and an elbow, then went to the mat to stay with another right hand.

Two hard hammer fists drew an intervention from referee Fernando Navarro, but the finish might go viral thanks to announcer Bruce Buffer, who got the time of the stoppage right but incorrectly announced Miranda as the winner.

He seemed to recognize his mistake immediately, but didn’t correct himself and instead simply walked out of the cage as Cormier arrived to interview Emmers.

MarQuel Mederos wanted an elegant fight.

The 28-year-old displayed his technical prowess in the first round by switching stances, changing directions and countering well when he could cajole lightweight opponent Austin Hubbard into initiating exchanges.

But when it got ugly, Hubbard was in his element.

The Denver-based veteran took Mederos down in each of the final two rounds and racked up better than seven minutes while doing so, yet it was not enough on the scorecards as Mederos was awarded a split decision with all three judges seeing it 29-28.

Hubbard finished with a 62-57 edge in total strikes in addition to the wins in takedowns and control time, which prompted the B/R card to lean his direction by a similar 2-1 nod in rounds.

Mederos conceded it was no gimme and suggested he may have gotten the nod thanks to an elbow landed in the third round, as he escaped following a takedown, that opened a bloody cut on Hubbard’s head.

“I definitely knew it was close. That was a close-ass fight,” he said. “But we got the victory and that’s all that matters. I knew I had to go off (after the takedown). If not, that was the end of the fight.”

Main Card

Brandon Moreno def. Steve Erceg by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)

Manuel Torres def. Drew Dober by TKO (punches), 1:45, Round 1

Édgar Cháirez def. CJ Vergara by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:30, Round 1

Raul Rosas Jr. def. Vince Morales by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

David Martinez def. Saimon Oliveira by TKO (knee), 4:38, Round 1

Kevin Borjas def. Ronaldo Rodríguez by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Preliminary Card

Ateba Gautier def. Jose Daniel Medina by KO (knee), 3:32, Round 1

Melquizael Costa def. Christian Rodriguez by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Loopy Godínez def. Julia Polastri by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Rafa Garcia def. Vinc Pichel by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Jamall Emmers def. Gabriel Miranda by TKO (punch), 4:06, Round 1

MarQuel Mederos def. Austin Hubbard by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)