The Real Winners and Losers From UFC Fight Night 234

If at first you don't succeed, fight, fight again.

That was the recipe for the main event at Saturday's Fight Night show at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where the octagonal conglomerate paired light heavyweight rivals Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker for the second time in less than three full months.

The 205-pounders were set for a three-rounder in the middle bout of the UFC 294 show's main card, but it ended abruptly when Ankalaev landed a knee deemed illegal by referee Dan Movahedi and Walker was unable to continue after barely more than three minutes.

Neither fought in the intervening 84 days and they arrived for the five-round rematch ranked third and seventh in the division. Walker had won three straight before the initial bout with Ankalaev, while the Russian hadn't lost since his debut with the promotion in 2018—going 9-0 before a draw in a bout for a then-vacant title and the no contest with Walker.

They topped an 11-bout show whose preliminary portion began at 4 p.m. and was followed by the main card at 7 p.m. The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and deliver a real-time determination of the event's true winners and losers.

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

Mission accomplished. Rivalry completed.

Ankalaev insisted to anyone who'd listen that Walker willingly took an exit ramp from their initial fight in October in Abu Dhabi, and he'd not be given a similar opportunity when the two locked up again on Saturday in Las Vegas.

He was right. And in a particularly punishing manner.

Already ranked third at 205 pounds, Ankalaev stated his case for an immediate title shot by dispatching Walker with a pair of right hands and scoring a KO finish at 2:42 of the second round.

It was his 10th victory in a 12-fight unbeaten streak—with one draw and the no contest in the first Walker fight—since he lost his UFC debut in 2018. Six of the wins have been by KO and the other four by unanimous decision, including main events wins against Walker and Thiago Santos.

"I was preparing for this for a long time. I wanted the rematch right away," Ankalaev said. "The most important thing is I'm ready to fight for the title. I've won 10 fights in a row. I'm worth it. Give me that fight for a title now."

Walker made his own bid for a title fight in the early going, keeping Ankalaev guessing with long-range strikes and spinning fists and kicks. The frenetic approach gradually wore off, however, and Ankalaev began asserting himself late in the first with hard kicks to Walker's legs.

The decisive sequence began in the second when, as Walker retreated following an exchange, Ankalaev caught him with a right hand that sat him down alongside the fence. He leapt in to land another hard right before Walker could raise his guard and immediately prompted referee Marc Goddard to stop the action.

The blow looked as if it had broken Walker's nose and the beaten fighter stood in the center of the cage with a towel to his nose as the official announcement was made.

"Everyone who comes out to fight against me is trying to figure me out," Ankalaev said. "But when I come out here, I am open for the hunt. Everyone in front of me is the hunted."

The UFC 300 dream is still in play.

Record-setting veteran Jim Miller extended his promotional record to 26 victories in 43 fights and scored the 20th submission of his 18-year career by forcing a surrender from opponent Gabriel Benitez via face crank at 3:25 of the third round.

The victory rekindled his chase to participate in the milestone pay-per-view show that's scheduled for mid-April in Las Vegas. Miller is the only active fighter who's participated in UFC 100, where he beat Mac Danzig over three rounds; and UFC 200, where he stopped Takanori Gomi in one.

Miller suggested a handful of would-be opponents for the bout, including cage-side analyst Paul Felder, welterweight KO record-holder Matt Brown, and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

"I've got three months to heal up and stay in shape and stay ready," Miller said. "There have been a couple opponents out there whose names have been thrown out that intrigue me."

He passed the test with Benitez with a methodical attack that chopped his Mexican foe's legs out from under him. That hindered him enough to leave him vulnerable for the takedown that led to Miller controlling Benitez's back and locking in the submission.

"I can kick a steel post and it wouldn't hurt me," Miller said, "so I knew I could win the kicking battle and it'd slow him down. That was kind of the plan coming in here."

Welcome to the bantamweight big leagues, Mario Bautista.

The lanky 30-year-old had been campaigning for a shot at a ranked opponent during a five-fight win streak stretching back through 2022, and his patience paid off on Saturday's main card with an impressive unanimous nod over No. 13 Ricky Simon.

"I knew it was going to be tough. So, I prepared mentally and physically, and I came in here and trusted myself," Bautista said. "It was a great fight. He can really hit."

Bautista, though, is pretty good with his fists, too.

He was even with Simon in total strikes after the initial round but stepped on the gas in the second and third while ranking up 32-27 and 60-14 across the last 10 minutes.

Simon scored the fight's only two takedowns, including a hard slam early in the third, but appeared to have emptied his gas tank across 13 total attempts and was looking up at the clock several times in the late going.

The winner will presumably climb into the top 15 when the updated rankings come out on Monday and was prepared with a post-fight callout of No. 9 Rob Font.

"That's exactly what I wanted," Bautista said. "Hopefully I'll get in the top 15 and get a top 10 next. If (Font) wants to prove himself and show he belongs in the top 10, we can figure it out."

It's one of the best things about MMA.

It's one of the worst, too.

And the end of that spectrum at which you found yourself Saturday probably depended on how closely tied you were to New Jersey-based middleweight Phil Hawes.

The 35-year-old was on the receiving end of the show's scariest KO when he was dropped to his back by a wide left hook and subsequently hammered with three unfettered ground shots that left him semi-conscious as referee Chris Tognoni and nearby medical personnel huddled over him.

The sudden finish prompted a call for a bonus by winner Brunno Ferreira, who recorded his 11th straight finish as a pro and his fifth in a row in one round while living up to his "Hulk" nickname.

"The plan was to finish the fight and knock him out, to finish this fight," he said. "We knew we had the firepower to knock him out."

The decisive sequence started with a jumping right knee that left Hawes wobbly and vulnerable seconds later to the sweeping hook that landed high on his right temple. He was instantly laid out and didn't immediately respond as Ferreira swooped in for the three shots that made things academic.

"I am the Hulk," he said. "Today you got to see a little more of my arsenal."

Waldo Cortes-Acosta added a big name to his UFC resume by beating former heavyweight champion and 40-fight octagonal veteran Andrei Arlovski by a deserved, albeit dreary unanimous decision.

But he didn't earn a lot of love along the way.

The spirited Dominican lived up to his "Salsa Boy" nickname by incorporating some dancing, some gesturing, and some trash-talking across 15 minutes while winning two of three rounds on each of the three official scorecards.

The win was his fourth in fifth UFC fights and 11th in 12 career fights, but it was hardly invigorating to fans, some of whom booed when he exited the cage, and surely not to Arlovski, who refused a post-fight glove touch after the official decision was announced.

Neither man attempted a takedown or chased a submission and they combined for just 108 total strikes, 58 of which were landed by Arlovski—who won UFC gold in 2005 and defended twice. He was 10-4 in an initial UFC run through 2008 but is just 13-13 and has lost three straight in a second run that began in 2014.

Cortes-Acosta's shots were the more noticeable, though, and there was no immediate protest from Arlovski or his corner about the scorecards.

"Nothing surprised me. Arlovski is a good fighter, and he had a lot of technique," he said. "But I'm the rock here."

Some nicknames are simply showy. Others, though, are more indicative.

The latter was the case for Preston Parsons on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Floridian carries the tag "Pressure" with him as he approaches the cage and he embodied the name for nearly all of his 15 minutes with welterweight Matthew Semelsberger, scoring a career-best seven takedowns in 11 attempts alongside a 116-33 edge in strikes to justify a unanimous shutout decision in the featured prelim.

"People think I'm just a grappler but I'm a mixed martial artist and I can fight anywhere," said Parsons, who insisted it was preparation that made it possible. "I have the UFC (Performance Institute), my guys back home, my team. The intensity of our training and the coaching and guidance that we get is insane."

He'd won just once in three UFC fights and took the first round with Semelsberger by a narrow margin largely due to effective calf kicks. The margin grew in the second round as Parsons chased a finish with an armbar, and he got close to another submission with a kimura in the third but had to settle for a second decision in 11 career wins.

"This guy is a tough SOB and he kept telling me to bring it," Parsons said. "I heard his arm pop on the armbar and the kimura. He's gonna be sore tomorrow."

Marcus McGhee is not your garden variety MMA fighter.

His hairdo resembles an old-school deck mop. His physique is more compact and muscular than contemporaries in the 135-pound weight class. And though his "The Maniac" nickname screams menace, his humble persona is the antithesis of many modern combat athletes.

Make no mistake, though, he's a certifiable stud.

The 33-year-old got a late start to the pro game at age 29 and didn't reach the UFC for another three years afterward, but he's made the most of his time and continued that trend Saturday with a comprehensively dominant second-round stoppage of Gaston Bolaños.

The fight was hyped in advance by UFC boss Dana White and McGhee showed out under the spotlight, controlling the standup exchanges with superior power and work rate in the early going, chasing a submission finish at the close of the first round, and finishing things off after the break with another series of spectacular strikes.

"I don't like to boast, and I don't like to brag, but I deserve to be here," McGhee said. "If I can choke you I will but I want to drop you first."

McGhee got his knockdown with a right hand and stepped back as referee Mark Smith looked at Bolaños, then followed with another flurry of punches, a spinning heel kick to the head, and another single-shot right hand that prompted Smith's intervention at 3:29.

"The amount of work that it takes to get here and step into this cage, most people couldn't even fathom it," he said. "Now it's back to the drawing board. I'm gonna get better. Whoever they send me next, I'm gonna be up for the task."

It didn't provide the car-crash excitement of the initial three fights, each of which had ended with first- or second-round TKOs.

But that doesn't mean Farid Basharat was any less impressive.

The 26-year-old bantamweight was a study in determination and perpetual motion throughout 15 minutes against Taylor Lapilus, taking the Frenchman to the ground five times in 16 attempts and out-landing him on the feet by a 68-40 margin on the way to a shutout unanimous decision.

It was a 12th straight win as a pro and third in a row in the UFC for Basharat, who'd reached the radar with a 2022 appearance on Dana White's Contender Series. He's gone the full 15 minutes in five of the victories and showed a prodigious gas tank that seemed to break his foe's will once it became apparent that the onslaught would not stop.

"My training camp is insane. I have an insane work ethic," Basharat said. "I'm not sure if people understand how good Taylor Lapilus is. Thank you to him. He leveled me up today."

Basharat and his brother, Javid, are a combined 26-0 as professionals and now 6-0 in the UFC and the younger sibling suggested would-be foes might want to take up the challenge sooner than later.

"Anybody can get it," Farid Basharat said. "You can come fight us now or wait down the line when we're 100 times better."

Nerds are cool. Nerds are smart.

And, if Jean Silva is indicative, they're tough, too.

The Brazilian UFC newcomer dusted opponent Westin Wilson in less than a round in his debut, then went all-in with the character by donning a pair of taped-up, black-rimmed glasses while insisting he'll soon become a menace with the promotion.

"We trained this. We trained it," he said, demonstrating with his trainer the left-right combination that led to the TKO finish at 4:12 of the opening round. "Nobody's ever gonna be able to stand with me. No one. Never."

The one-sidedness of the fight left a lot of time to discuss other things.

Silva had arrived at cage-side after a prolonged walkout that took nearly four minutes and wound up just 32 seconds shorter than the fight itself. Analysts Alan Jouban and Din Thomas kiddingly debated over the effectiveness of the approach, with Jouban suggesting it was dramatic like a war movie while Thomas countered by saying it was more of a docuseries.

Either way, it's clear the pre-fight odds were spot on.

Silva entered as a –900 betting favorite—the largest number on the 11-bout card.

Tom Nolan had all the elements of a superstar.

At 6'3", he's a particularly imposing 155-pounder. In five pre-UFC fights and one appearance on Dana White's Contender Series, he'd not come close to losing. And across his last four fights in particular, not a single foe had lasted into the second round.

But there's more to it than size, resume, and trash talk.

Instead of a smashing success in his first octagonal opportunity, Nolan found himself on the disappointingly short end of the stick after being knocked down with a hard combination and battered with a follow-up flurry that wound up as a TKO loss after just 63 seconds.

For opponent Nikolas Motta, who arrived as a +275 underdog, it was a matter of simply being himself.

"I finally started showing who I am," the 30-year-old Brazilian said. "My coach always tells me, 'Bro, you didn't show all the skills you have.' It feels great. I know I have a lot of power and I work with some of the best. I've finally found myself now."

Indeed, it was the 10th KO victory in 14 career wins for Motta, who said a pre-fight meeting with Nolan made him certain it'd be a violent fight.

"Tom Nolan is a killer. He has a finish rate that's so high. He's a killer," he said. "I saw him in the elevator today and we laughed and said, 'Yeah, it's not going to be a boring fight."

If UFC fights were five minutes long, Joshua Van would be nobody.

But because they're not, he's somebody. Maybe a big somebody.

The 22-year-old flyweight lost the opening round in each of his first two octagonal appearances before rallying to win decisions. He was on the short end of the opener again Saturday but had no intention of sweating it out to the scorecards.

Instead, Van let loose with flurries that were absent in the opening round, battering UFC newbie and former LFA champ Felipe Bunes into a referee stoppage at 4:31 of the second.

"This is for sure a flyweight prospect to keep an eye out for," analyst Felder said. " It's not good to lose the first round in your fights. But he's winning them anyway."

It's eight wins in a row overall for Van, who turned pro at age 20 and hasn't lost since his third fight two months later. He fought five times in 2022, twice in 2023 and plans to stay busy in the New Year.

"I wanna stay active this year. I wanna fight four to six times this year," he said. "Tell Dana (White) I wanna fight again next week."

Main Card

Magomed Ankalaev def. Johnny Walker by KO (strikes), 2:42, Round 2

Jim Miller def. Gabriel Benitez by submission (face crank), 3:25, Round 3

Mario Bautista def. Ricky Simon by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Brunno Ferreira def. Phil Hawes by KO (strikes), 4:55, Round 1

Waldo Cortes-Acosta def. Andrei Arlovski by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Preliminary Card

Preston Parsons def. Matthew Semelsberger by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Marcus McGhee def. Gaston Bolaños by TKO (strikes), 3:29, Round 2

Farid Basharat def. Taylor Lapilus by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Jean Silva def. Westin Wilson by TKO (strikes), 4:12, Round 1

Nikolas Motta def. Tom Nolan by TKO (strikes), 1:03, Round 1

Joshua Van def. Felipe Bunes by TKO (strikes), 4:31, Round 2