UFC Fight Night 247 Results: Live Winners and Losers From the Full Card

It was a tale as old as time and a song as old as rhyme.

Veteran against prospect.

The UFC followed the recipe again for Saturday's card at the Apex in Las Vegas, where 15th-ranked welterweight contender Neil Magny, who had the most wins in the division's history, risked his status in the main event against streaking Brazilian phenom Carlos Prates.

Prates had won three straight octagonal bouts, all by KO, since arriving on Dana White's Contender Series 15 months ago. He was 20-6 overall as a pro with 15 KOs and three submissions, while Magny, 37, arrived with 29 career wins and 22 as a UFC 170-pounder.

The latter total was three more than former champion Georges St-Pierre.

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

It was easy to envision the winning scenarios for Carlos Prates on Saturday.

Not many of them, though, involved a semi-conscious Neil Magny laying motionless at the feet of referee Mark Smith.

But that's exactly the scene the streaking Brazilian created against the world's 15th-ranked welterweight after landing a left hand that cracked Magny on the left temple and sent him plummeting face-first to the floor at 4:50 of Round 1.

"I can't think of a better UFC start than we've seen from him," analyst Laura Sanko said.

"The ceiling feels limitless after watching that."

It was the 31-year-old's fourth win in four fights in 2024 after he'd successfully arrived on Dana White's Contender Series in August 2023. The active four-KO streak in the octagon is tied for second in the company and he's now stopped 10 straight opponents since last going the three-round distance in the ONE Championship promotion in 2019.

"It's feeling awesome," he told analyst Michael Bisping afterward. "So far, the best year of my life and my career."

Magny arrived with the most welterweight wins in UFC history with 22, but lost for the second consecutive fight and the 12th time in 34 fights since arriving in 2013.

He occupied the bottom rung on the rankings ladder entering the fight and Prates figures to at least claim it if not more when the new list comes out Monday. He's interested in fighting on the UFC's planned card in Australia in February and suggested two opponents – either 10th-ranked Geoff Neal or No. 4 Jack Della Maddalena – would be desired as foes.

"I'm ready to fight the best," Prates said, gesturing toward his Fighting Nerds teammates. "Every day I come to the gym and train with these guys and they make me ready."

Given his title-winning pedigree in the rival ONE Championship promotion, veteran Reinier de Ridder was looking for an upper-echelon statement when his UFC debut finally came in Saturday's co-main event.

He didn't necessarily get it while grinding his way to a third-round arm triangle choke submission over 54-fight professional and former training partner Gerald Meerschaert.

The fight was largely forgettable for the non-grappling savant crowd until the end came at 1:44 of the third when de Ridder got to top mount, isolated his foe's right arm, and cinched up the third triangle choke and his 12th submission.

But he may have made up for it with a little post-fight humor.

The 34-year-old labored through the typical interview questions and gave himself a so-so grade for the win, his 18th in 20 pro fights – suggesting that he'd "Gerald Meerschaerted Gerald Meerschaert" – before ramping up the personality when he shifted his focus forward to what's next at 185 pounds.

"New York is on the way home. So if you need me there next week (for UFC 309) at Madison Square Garden, I'm available," he said. "Gimme a call in a couple hours, though, because after that I might be a little drunk."

Now and then, the nicknames ring true.

Peruvian bantamweight Gaston Bolaños entered his main-card bout with octagonal newbie Cortavious Romious as a significant betting underdog on an evening where, through the first eight bouts, precisely no favorite had failed to cash.

Enter the "Dream Killer."

Bolaños was fueled by emotion as he arrived at the Apex on Saturday and his determination to fight through adversity carried him across 15 minutes against the two-time Dana White's Contender Series participant and all the way to a unanimous decision victory.

The 32-year-old Bolaños had started his own UFC run with a win in April 2023 but was stopped in two rounds by Marcus McGhee in his most recent fight in January.

He was sharper and busier from the start against Romious, though, winning the first round with work rate, finishing the second with brutal elbows that left his foe bloody, and wrapping it up in the third thanks to superior gas tank.

All three judges awarded him a shutout by scores of 30-27 twice and 30-26 once.

"It's my third fight and I wanted to show my evolution over the last eight months," he said. "I wanted to be in those tough positions and show that I belong in this division."

And once the post-fight analysis ended, the emotion began.

"I've been dreaming about dedicating this fight to my father," he said, recalling the family's move from Peru when he was 13 and seeing his father work three jobs. "I wouldn't be here without you. This fight's for you. I love you."

Sometimes you can see a future champion.

But in Mansur Abdul-Malik's case, it's another sense that takes over.

Sound.

The 27-year-old announced his UFC presence with audible authority against seven-fight middleweight veteran Dusko Todorovic, landing thudding shots that left the broadcast team both cringing and gushing.

"The sound of his strikes is something I'll never forget," analyst Laura Sanko said. "It's like hitting a watermelon with a baseball bat."

The graduate of Dana White's Contender Series didn't create the effect with every shot he threw but it happened often enough to leave the Serbian veteran bloodied, swollen and nearly too wobbly to stand after Abdul-Malik finished him by TKO at just 2:44 of the first.

Todorovic's fate was sealed essentially from the moment he was felled by a counter right hand after a tie-up along the fence in the first 90 seconds.

His desperate tries for a leg lock or kneebar left him vulnerable to hammer fists as Abdul-Malik hovered over him, and the resonance of a hard knee that connected as Todorovic got back to his feet echoed across the building.

Todorovic hit the deck again soon after and referee Mike Beltran intervened amid another flurry of punishing hammer fists that gave the unbeaten winner his seventh consecutive finish.

Asked what was to come in his career, Abdul-Malik forecasted positivity.

"Steak dinners. Beautiful things," he said. "More good moments."

There's something about the desperation of an athlete reaching age 30, and beyond.

In Charles Radtke's case, it fuels emotion.

The 34-year-old welterweight entered Saturday's prelim fight with Matthew Semelsberger coming off a loss that dropped his UFC record to a pedestrian 2-1, so he was determined – intensely determined – to make sure the skid didn't become a streak.

And once he used a quick cage-side punching barrage to finish Semelsberger in just 51 seconds, the intensity prompted the emotion to come out.

"I knew I was gonna have a dog fight, but I put that dog to sleep," he said, before pivoting his focus to a post-fight bonus. "Gimme that money, gimme it. Or I'm gonna have to keep knocking out the whole welterweight division. A bunch of b-–hes."

Moments later, he was driven near tears after looking outside the cage to acknowledge members of his family.

"I got my family over here," he said. "They've stuck with me through all of this and I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity."

It was a second straight win for an older fighter coming off a loss, following 30-year-old bantamweight Da'Mon Blackshear's first-round prelim choke-out of Cody Stamann.

The win leveled Blackshear's UFC record at 3-3-1.

A little tip to the tall, lanky middleweights in the UFC: Steer clear of Tresean Gore.

The stocky 30-year-old stands just six feet tall but he's clearly got a strategy when it comes to the taller opponents, and he downed his second straight in Saturday's second fight with a standing guillotine submission of 6'5" Antonio Trocoli.

It was Gore's first octagonal appearance in better than two years thanks to myriad injuries but he handled it the same way coming off a second-round guillotine choke-out of 6'4" opponent Josh Fremd on a Fight Night show in October 2022.

Saturday's official time was 1:23 of the first round.

"I get black belts with that guillotine," Gore said. "You stick your neck in there and I'm gonna take it home."

Trocoli was taken down early but got back to his feet and tried to return the favor by diving for a shot on Gore's right leg. Instead, Gore stayed vertical and snatched Trocoli's neck in the process, wrapping it up with his right arm and drawing a quick tap.

"I'm not just a prospect, I'm a contender," Gore said. "I'm gonna keep leveling up on you boys. And before you know it I'll be No. 1."

UFC debuts can be magical. But not always.

Twenty-five-year-old Polish export Klaudia Syguła got a taste of the latter after her first walk to the octagon in Saturday's first prelim bout, lasting just a shade more than six minutes before bowing out via TKO against British bantamweight Melissa Mullins.

Sygula had won six of seven career bouts in a handful of promotions before arriving in Las Vegas and she started well on her feet against Mullins, but was taken down late in the first round and battered with heavy strikes as the session ended.

Mullins' corner team encouraged a quick continuation of the sequence as Round 2 began and she responded, immediately getting Sygula to the mat with a body lock trip and isolating her right wrist before letting loose with a series of hard left hands.

Referee Chris Tognoni eventually intervened at 1:20 of the second.

The other first-timer on the prelim card, welterweight Zach Scroggin, took a fight with Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos on short notice and didn't fare any better, folding to the canvas from a hard right hand and covering up from a follow-up flurry until Tognoni stepped in at 1:15.

Scroggin had gone 7-0 in the Fighting Alliance Championship promotion and stepped in when Zaleski dos Santos' scheduled opponent, Nicolas Dalby, was removed from the card.

Main Card

Carlos Prates def. Neal Magny by KO (punch), 4:50, Round 1

Reinier de Ridder def. Gerald Meerschaert by submission (arm triangle choke), 1:44, Round 3

Gaston Bolaños def. Cortavious Romious by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)

Gillian Robertson def. Luana Pinheiro by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Dusko Todorovic by TKO (strikes), 2:44, Round 1

Preliminary Card

Denise Gomes def. Karolina Kowalkiewicz by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Zach Scroggin by TKO (punches), 1:15, Round 1

Charles Radtke def. Matthew Semelsberger by TKO (punches), 0:51, Round 1

Da'Mon Blackshear def. Cody Stamann by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:19, Round 1

Tresean Gore def. Antonio Trocoli by submission (guillotine choke), 1:23, Round 1

Melissa Mullins def. Klaudia Syguła by TKO (punches), 1:20, Round 2