The Real Winners and Losers from UFC 267

It's OK to be a little confused.

Though the UFC's tradition is to reserve numbered events for pay-per-view shows, the live broadcast from "Fight Island" in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Saturday morning and afternoon ET was billed as UFC 267—though it was available at no extra charge to ESPN+ subscribers in the United States.

Got all that? Great, because the fights were pretty good too.

Light heavyweight kingpin Jan Blachowicz was atop the 14-fight card for the second defense of his 205-pound belt against veteran Glover Teixeira, who turned 42 during fight week and fell short in an initial bid for a championship strap against then-incumbent Jon Jones in 2014.

The Blachowicz match was supplemented by an interim title bout at bantamweight between former undisputed champ Petr Yan and No. 3 contender Cory Sandhagen, who were vying for the next spot in line to face titleholder Aljamain Sterling. He, lest anyone forget, won the title from Yan at UFC 259 in March after the Russian was disqualified for an illegal knee that left Sterling unable to continue.

The card was trimmed from 15 to 14 on Friday when lightweight Damir Ismagulov weighed in at 163.5 pounds for a bout with Magomed Mustafaev, 7.5 pounds over the limit, prompting a cancellation.

The special event was handled from the announce table by Jon Anik, Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder, while John Gooden worked the room for breaking news and features and Din Thomas provided technical analysis.

Joe Martinez handled the in-cage introductions in a substitute role, filling in for Bruce Buffer.

UFC President Dana White said during fight week that Buffer had contracted COVID-19, and the illness forced him to miss a numbered UFC event for the first time since UFC 11 in 1996.

The B/R combat sports team was in position to assemble its weekly list of definitive winners and losers from the show. Click through to see what we came up with and let us know what you think with a contribution or two to the comments section.

Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you.

If you're Glover Teixeira.

Two days after celebrating his 42nd birthday and over seven years past a failed first title try, the ageless Brazilian got it done in surprising fashion and became the second-oldest UFC champion in history with a second-round submission of -300 betting favorite Blachowicz with a rear-naked choke.

"I have no words to describe. What can I say right now?" Teixeira said. "I was talking to Dana this week about how he runs UFC, and he's breaking the rules. I'm breaking the rules at 42 years old too.

"And I'm going to keep breaking the rules. This is my house. I love this."

The victory prompted an emotional response from Cormier, himself a former light heavyweight titleholder who's just seven months older than the new champion.

"You look at us celebrating, it's not because we don't like Jan Blachowicz," he said. "You believe in miracles? This was what you saw tonight. This was a movie we saw playing in front of us tonight."

Funny thing was, once the fight started, the ending looked inevitable.

Teixeira scored a takedown in the first minute—the first against Blachowicz in his last six fights—and kept Blachowicz on the ground for the remainder of the session, while the Polish champion stayed in a defensive position to avoid significant damage or danger of submission opportunities.

A hard left hook wobbled Blachowicz halfway through the second and led to another takedown along the fence. And this time, Teixeira was able to get to his opponent's back and quickly flatten him out before wrapping his right arm under Blachowicz's chin to get a quick tapout at 3:02.

He was the only underdog to win on the six-fight main card.

"Jan is a tremendous champion. He beat everyone to get here. I love this man. He has my respect forever," Teixeira said. "But I told you guys, ‘I'm coming home with the belt,' and I kept my promise. Never give up on your dreams. No matter what negative people say, don't listen to them."     

There's a funny thing about fighting Petr Yan.

You can be winning exchanges. You can even be winning rounds. But then you slump down on your stool and you're exhausted, swollen and bleeding.

And then, you're beaten.

That's what happened to Cory Sandhagen in Saturday's co-main event.

The 29-year-old from Colorado was fleet on his feet and sharp with his hands early, but his Russian foe punishingly narrowed the gap as the minutes ticked away, eventually taking control of the exchanges and landing the more meaningful blows across a grueling 25-minute encounter.

As a result, Yan was awarded a 49-46 margin—or four rounds to one—on all three official scorecards and became the UFC's interim titleholder at 135 pounds.

And Sandhagen knew it.

"Not really," he said when Cormier asked if he thought he deserved the decision. "He's a hell of a fighter. Dude was better tonight. I have nothing else to say.

"I'll take from it and I'll learn from it, and next time I meet him, I'll get the win."

A winner in seven of his previous nine UFC fights, Sandhagen earned the initial round with sharp strikes and occasional takedown attempts that made Yan look tentative as he tried to decipher his opponent's approach. The pair exchanged moments over the subsequent two rounds, but Yan drew decisive blood with a spinning right backfist followed by an overhand left that dropped Sandhagen in the third.

Yan landed several hard blows in the fourth and reversed a Sandhagen takedown attempt to gain position and land a short barrage of punishing ground strikes. Still, Sandhagen responded to exhortations from his corner and fought competitively in the fifth but couldn't land any shots that dissuaded Yan from pressing forward.

"I knew it was going to be a fight, and I knew I was going to change the course of the fight with pace and pressure," Yan said. "I knew it was going to be his game plan to be moving a lot, but our game plan was to beat him to the punch."

The win was Yan's eighth in nine UFC fights, with the only loss coming via disqualification against Sterling, whose name he was quick to mention in the aftermath.

"Everyone knows I am the real champion," he said. "I am ready to fight anyone, either (No. 2 contender) TJ Dillashaw or the clown Sterling."     

Khabib Nurmagomedov called his protege's shot.

The ex-lightweight champion, who retired unbeaten last year, said Islam Makhachev would have his "Madison Square Garden moment" in Saturday's main card bout with Dan Hooker.

Hooker arrived as the sixth-ranked fighter in the division, had 11 wins in the Octagon and had beaten marquee names Jim Miller, Gilbert Burns, Paul Felder and Nasrat Haqparast.

Nurmagomedov's statement was a reference to his breakout victory over veteran Michael Johnson in 2016, which he won by kimura submission in New York City two fights before becoming a champion.

Makhachev was obviously paying attention.

The 30-year-old made his 11th appearance in the Octagon just as memorable as his mentor's win over Johnson by taking down Hooker in the opening minute, working his way into a submission position and seizing his foe's right arm on the way to drawing a surrender by the same kimura method at 2:25 of the round.

And in the aftermath, he was just as ambitious as Nurmagomedov had been.

"Now it's time," he said. "Before, it was top-10 or top-15. This guy was top-six. Now we have to talk. Nine-fight win streak. Now I'm ready for [a] title fight."

Indeed, it was the 10th win in the UFC and ninth straight since his lone loss, which came in 2015. Four have come by submissions and one by a knockout, in addition to four unanimous decisions.

"This is MMA," he said. "When it comes to an MMA ground game, I have the best in the division. I'm coming to take this belt."   

Khamzat Chimaev talked the talk in 2020. But the opposition was mid-tier at best.

And then he missed more than a year battling COVID-19 and its aftereffects.

But he'd like you to know he is back, and, if Saturday is indicative, as good or better than ever.

"I am the king here. I'm going to stay here a long time and I'm going to kill everybody," he said, after dispatching Li Jingliang in just more than three minutes of a scheduled three-rounder.

"Do you believe me now?"

Jingliang, incidentally, arrived as the No. 11 contender in the welterweight division, had lost just twice in his last 10 fights and hadn't been stopped inside the distance in more than six years.

So, yes. You should believe him now.

Anik certainly does.

"Have you ever seen a phenom like this?" he said. "Khamzat Chimaev was 6-to-1 coming in, and he could have been 12-to-1. He is the real deal, and you've got to think this has put the welterweight division on notice.

"If nothing else, Khamzat Chimaev owns Fight Island."

Indeed, it was the third win for the 27-year-old at the venue in Abu Dhabi, where he won twice in 10 days in July 2020 before heading to Las Vegas in September for a 17-second blowout of Gerald Meerschaert.

It wasn't that fast this time, but it was decisive.

Chimaev got behind Jingliang on a takedown attempt, picked him up and carried him toward the fence, where he began chatting at White, who was sitting cageside looking at his phone.

He deposited his foe on the floor, worked his way behind Jingliang while flattening him out and then locked in a rear-naked choke that put the Chinese veteran out at 3:16 of the round.

"Don't miss my fights. Don't look at your phone," he said, and then answered Cormier's question about future opponents with a general statement of menace. "Everybody. I come here for everybody.

"I'm the champ. No one can beat me."     

It's official: Amanda Ribas can handle adversity.

Now 28, the Brazilian was among the UFC's breakout stars of 2020 before having her four-fight Octagon win streak snuffed out in a stoppage loss to Marina Rodriguez at UFC 257 in January.

And in her first appearance since that defeat, Ribas was outhustled, outkicked and outpunched across nearly every moment of the first round of Saturday's featured preliminary by Virna Jandiroba.

But now she's back.

Ribas looked like a different fighter in the final two rounds of the duel with her fellow Brazilian, moving forward with the intent to initiate exchanges and land powerful blows.

She did so with both her hands and feet in the second and then nearly put her foe out with a hard kick to the head in the third—cruising to a unanimous-decision victory in a matchup of ranked strawweight contenders.

Ribas earned 29-28 verdicts—or two rounds-to-one margins—on all three scorecards.

"I'm very impressed by Amanda Ribas," Cormier said. "She looks so much more complete to me."

She arrived as the No. 10 contender, and the win boosted her to 11-2 overall and 5-1 in the UFC, while Jandiroba (No. 12 contender) is 3-3 in the Octagon after starting her pre-UFC career with 14 straight wins.

"I can't believe I'm talking to you," Ribas said to Cormier moments after the victory. "I think I learned a lot from my last fight."

Benoit Saint Denis is a tough guy.

Maybe too tough for his long-term professional health.

The 25-year-old welterweight is a veteran of the French military, where he served in the special forces and was routinely subject to training that included extreme sleep deprivation, among other things.

He needed every bit of that background to get through a brutal second round with Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, where he was on the receiving end of 106 strikes—including 94 of the significant variety—in a prolonged barrage that had the ESPN announce team bellowing for a stoppage.

Instead, referee Vyacheslav Kiselev stood by as Saint Denis wobbled from one side of the Octagon to the other and at one point simply leaned back on the fence and covered up, showing no ability to move or mount a return offensive. Zaleski dos Santos even waved to the official in a sign that the action ought to be stopped as well, but Kiselev did not intervene. 

Saint Denis went back to his corner after the second and seemed barely cognizant of the instructions from his corner team as he bled both from a badly misshapen nose and a swollen, cut right eye.

"I hate that they let him go back out there," Cormier said. "I hate that the corner didn't stop it. I hate that the ref didn't stop it. He may survive this one, but what about what it does to him down the road?"

The fight lasted through three rounds, and Saint Denis was on the losing end of 29-26 counts on all three scorecards. He was out-struck, 167-80, and was on the wrong end of a 149-67 margin in significant strikes.

Fellow UFC referee John McCarthy took to Twitter to call it the "worst job of officiating" at a UFC event ever, and Cormier tweeted a similar sentiment, labeling it the "worst performance I have seen from a referee in my life."

"That's how quickly the game can change."

Rarely have an announcer's words been more appropriate.

Anik's proclamation came as featherweight Makwan Amirkhani laid chillingly motionless on the floor, moments after taking a devastating right knee to the side of the face.

The blow rendered the 32-year-old instantly semi-conscious and signaled the end of his scheduled three-rounder with Lerone Murphy after just 14 seconds of the second round.

The comment was pertinent because Amirkhani, who'd won six of 10 previous UFC appearances, had dominated the first round after getting Murphy to the mat and establishing positional control for better than four minutes.

He reacted to a Murphy feint with the left hand to begin the second and changed levels in a search for another takedown, but Murphy was ready and reacted with the knee.

Amirkhani was immediately defenseless, and Murphy got in a pair of quick hammerfist attempts before Goddard covered the stricken fighter.

"I saw him dip, and I knew it'd be there," said Murphy, now 3-0-1 in the Octagon and 11-0-1 overall.

And not surprisingly, he suggested the highlight stoppage ought to translate to bonus cash.

"That's 50 G's," Murphy said. "Fifty G's, Dana White."

Main Card

Glover Teixeira def. Jan Blachowicz by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:02, Round 2

Petr Yan def. Cory Sandhagen by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)

Islam Makhachev def. Dan Hooker by submission (kimura), 2:25, Round 1 

Alexander Volkov def. Marcin Tybura by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Khamzat Chimaev def. Li Jingliang by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:16, Round 1

Magomed Ankalaev def. Volkan Oezdemir by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Preliminary Card

Amanda Ribas def. Virna Jandiroba by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Zubaira Tukhugov def. Ricardo Ramos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Albert Duraev def. Roman Kopylov by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-27)

Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Benoit Saint Denis by unanimous decision (29-26, 29-26, 29-26)

Michal Oleksiejczuk def. Shamil Gamzatov by TKO (punches), 3:31, Round 1

Lerone Murphy def. Makwan Amirkhani by KO (knee), 0:14, Round 2

Andre Petroski def. Hu Yaozong by submission (arm triangle), 4:46, Round 3

Tagir Ulanbekov def. Allan Nascimento by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Odds via DraftKings.