LAS VEGAS — The UFC is capping its year with something of a celebration of the hard-core fan, a reward for those who have been following the sport of MMA for a long time.
Charles Oliveira defends his UFC lightweight title against Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 269 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. It’s not only a title fight between two of the top fighters in the world, it’s also a battle between two of the most tenured fighters in the promotion that have had long journeys to the elite.
Oliveira won the belt with a second-round TKO win over Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May. That was Oliveira’s 28th UFC fight — the longest journey for any fighter to a UFC title in history. If Poirier wins Saturday, he’ll become champion in his 27th UFC fight, the second longest road ever. ESPN ranks Poirier No. 5 and Oliveira No. 6 in the world on its pound-for-pound MMA list. At lightweight, ESPN has Poirier at No. 1 and Oliveira at No. 2.
Oliveira (31-8, 1 NC) has won nine in a row. The Brazil native has the most finishes (17) and most submission wins (14) in UFC history. Oliveira, 32, has a 19-8 (1 NC) record in the UFC going back to his debut in 2010.
Poirier (28-6, 1 NC), a former UFC interim lightweight champ, has stopped Conor McGregor twice this year. Poirier, a Louisiana native fighting out of Florida, has won three straight and has just one loss in his last 10 fights, to former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title fight at UFC 242 in September 2019. Poirier, 32, has the most KO/TKO victories in UFC lightweight history (8).
In the co-main event, Amanda Nunes defends her UFC women’s bantamweight title against Julianna Pena. Nunes (21-4), who is also the UFC women’s featherweight champ, has won 12 straight going back to 2014. The 33-year-old Brazilian is regarded as the greatest women’s MMA fighter of all time, with wins over Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg and Valentina Shevchenko (twice). Pena (10-4), a 32-year-old Washington native, has won two of three and six of her last eight overall.
Also on the card, former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt moves down to flyweight to face Kai Kara-France, Geoff Neal and Santiago Ponzinibbio face off in a battle of welterweight knockout artists and top bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley faces Raulian Paiva.
Follow along as Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim recap the action or watch the fights on ESPN+. Purchase the PPV here.
Fight in progress: Men’s featherweight: Josh Emmett (16-2, 7-2 UFC, -165) vs. Dan Ige (15-4, 7-3 UFC, +140)
Results:
Men’s bantamweight: Dominick Cruz (24-3, 7-2 UFC) def. Pedro Munhoz (19-7 1 NC, 9-7 1 NC UFC) by unanimous decision
Recap to come.
Heavyweight: Tai Tuivasa (14-3, 7-3 UFC) def. Augusto Sakai (15-4-1, 4-3 UFC) by second-round KO (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
It’s hard to decipher what a live UFC crowd appreciates more out of Tuivasa at this point: his knockouts or his shoeys.
Tuivasa, of Sydney, gave the Las Vegas crowd both on Saturday. He viciously knocked out Sakai, of Brazil, 26 seconds into the second round with punches along the fence to extend his win streak to four. Immediately after the knockout, he jumped onto the cage and downed his trademark shoey — a beer, poured into a sneaker.
“I feel I’m getting better and better at this point,” Tuivasa said. “I heard my corner say that left [hook] is opening up. I just had to stand on my edge, stalk him and hunt him down. I’ve said it before: I’m a banger from Western Sydney, and I’ll bang with anyone.”
Give the man his SHOE!!! #UFC269
— Niko Price (@Nikohybridprice) December 12, 2021
The end was violent, but the buildup to it was very calculated for Tuivasa. He took the center of the cage and calmly pursued Sakai around the perimeter. Sakai landed some good knees to the body in the clinch, but Tuivasa’s boxing dictated the early exchanges.
After rocking Sakai with a left hook out in the open, Tuivasa followed him to the fence and attacked with right hands until he scored one down the middle to finish the fight. Sakai has now lost three in a row after starting his UFC career on a four-fight win streak.
Middleweight: Bruno Silva (22-6, 3-0 UFC) def. Jordan Wright (12-2, 2-2 UFC) by first-round TKO (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
1:16
Bruno Silva wobbles Jordan Wright with a couple of punches and ends the fight early at UFC 269.
Wright was connecting early with kicks to the body and head, then had Silva trapped against the cage and was landing knees to the body. But Silva weathered the onslaught, even welcomed it. He fought himself away from the cage with a flurry of punches, and when he landed a crisp right-left combination he had Wright wobbled, leading to the finish at 1:28 of the round.
Silva, a 32-year-old Brazilian, has won seven in a row, all by knockout. He used resilience and pinpoint accuracy to quickly get the job done. He is the fifth middleweight to start a UFC career 3-0 with three knockouts, joining Paulo Costa, Nate Quarry, Yoel Romero and Gerald Harris.
— danawhite (@danawhite) December 12, 2021
Wright, who is 30 and from Los Angeles, has lost two of his past three after starting his career at 11-0 with a no contest. Both losses have come by knockout.
Middleweight: Andre Muniz (22-4, 4-0 UFC) def. Eryk Anders (14-6 1 NC, 6-6 1 NC UFC) by first-round submission (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
Demian Maia and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza are no longer in the UFC. In their absence, the middleweight division has a new grappling specialist.
Muniz submitted Anders with an armbar at 3:13 of the first round following a supremely slick grappling exchange. It was similar to the sequence that led to Muniz breaking Souza’s arm earlier this year. Afterward, Muniz said this proved his prowess had nothing to do with luck.
“As it turns out, we train a lot,” Muniz said in his postfight interview. “That’s my position and I dominate.”
He’s like a new age Maia
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) December 12, 2021
Muniz shot for a big takedown early in the fight and landed it. Anders was able to work his way back to his feet, but Muniz got Anders’ back standing up and then impressively transitioned to the armbar as things went back down to the ground.
Muniz, 31, has won eight straight, including his first four in the UFC. The Brazil native also has three straight submission finishes — including that armbar win over Souza at UFC 262 in May — and has won four of his past five via tap.
Anders, a 34-year-old Alabama resident fighting out of Arizona, has just one win in his past four fights.
Women’s flyweight: Erin Blanchfield (8-1, 2-0 UFC) def. Miranda Maverick (11-4, 2-2 UFC) by unanimous decision (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
The future of the UFC’s 125-pound division was on display in a battle of two women in ESPN’s top-25-under-age-25 rankings, and the 22-year-old Blanchfield was thoroughly dominant.
Blanchfield, who fights out of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, won her fifth fight in a row, including her first two in the UFC, by tying the flyweight record with seven takedowns and threatening takedowns the whole way. She spent nearly the entire fight in dominant positions, and Maverick spent the whole 15 minutes playing defense.
All three judges scored the bout 30-27, and they made it seem closer than it was.
Maverick, who is 24 and from Norfolk, Virginia, has lost two in a row after running off a five-fight winning streak. Her July defeat against Maycee Barber was tightly contested, though, while this one was not.
Men’s featherweight: Ryan Hall (9-2, 5-1 UFC) def. Darrick Minner (26-13, 2-3 UFC) by unanimous decision (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
It was not an easy victory per se, but ultimately Hall relied heavily on his bread and butter in a three-round decision over a near 40-fight veteran in Minner.
Hall, of Falls Church, Virginia, outclassed Minner on the floor en route to his fifth win in the UFC. Minner did well defending Hall’s numerous attempts at chokes and leg attacks, but he consistently lost key positional battles in grappling exchanges. Hall finished the second and third rounds in dominant top position, landing strikes.
Minner, of Nebraska, had some success on the feet but seemed very willing to engage with Hall on the ground. According to UFC Stats, Hall was not credited with a single takedown, but the action hit the mat in every frame — which favored Hall’s style.
Hall rebounded from a knockout loss to prospect Ilia Topuria in his last bout in July.
Elite level grappling and Jiujitsu by both these killers exciting fight #ufc269
— Charles Rosa (@CharlesRosaMMA) December 11, 2021
Men’s bantamweight: Tony Kelley (8-2, 2-1 UFC) def. Randy Costa (6-3, 2-3 UFC) by second-round TKO (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
1:08
Tony Kelley wins the biggest fight of his UFC career so far with a TKO win over Randy Costa.
Kelley had a game plan and executed it to perfection.
In the first round, Kelley came out and put a relentless pace on Costa, causing Costa to fatigue. In the second, Kelley finished the job, winning by TKO at 4:15 of the round. Kelley dropped Costa with a knee to the body from the Thai clinch and then fired off a barrage of ground-and-pound until referee Mark Smith stepped in to stop it.
“I’m stoked, man,” Kelley said in his postfight interview. “But I’m not surprised.”
Kelley, 34, has won two straight following a loss in his UFC debut in August 2020. The Louisiana native picked up his first stoppage victory in the UFC here, as well. Costa, a 27-year-old Massachusetts native, had a two-fight winning streak snapped.
Women’s flyweight: Gillian Robertson (10-6, 7-4 UFC) def. Priscila Cachoeira (10-4, 2-43 UFC) by first-round submission (Watch this fight on ESPN+)
0:56
Gillian Robertson gets back in the win column with a submission win over Priscila Cachoeira at UFC 269.
Robertson is at her best when grappling, and she put that on display in the evening’s opener, dominating Cachoeira before clamping on a rear-naked choke that elicited the tapout with one second to go in Round 1.
For Robertson, a 26-year-old Canadian who fights out of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, it was her sixth submission among nine pro wins. This win broke a two-fight losing streak.
Cachoeira, 33, from Brazil, saw a two-fight winning streak come to an end. She missed weight on Friday and surrendered 30% of her purse to Robertson.
Still to come:
Lightweight title: Charles Oliveira (c) (31-8 1 NC, 19-8 1 NC UFC, +135) vs. Dustin Poirier (28-6 1 NC, 20-5 1 NC UFC, -160)
Women’s bantamweight title: Amanda Nunes (c) (21-4, 14-1 UFC, -900) vs. Julianna Peña (11-4, 6-2 UFC, +600)
Welterweight: Geoff Neal (13-4, 5-2 UFC, +110) vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio (29-4, 10-3 UFC, -130)
Men’s flyweight: Kai Kara-France (22-9 NC, 5-2 UFC, +120) vs. Cody Garbrandt (12-4, 7-4 UFC, -140)
Men’s bantamweight: Raulian Paiva (21-3, 3-2 UFC, +250) vs. Sean O’Malley (14-1, 6-1 UFC, -310)
(c) = defending champion
