Sean O’Malley avenged the only loss on his pro record through an incredibly dominant performance on Saturday night against Marlon Vera, using his striking abilities to lead the fight from start to finish. The incumbent UFC Bantamweight Champion pitched a shutout, overwhelming Vera on the feet for a comfortable unanimous decision victory.
O’Malley staged a masterclass on the feet for 25 minutes, out-landing Vera and controlling the pace of the fight in the main event of UFC 299 from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, USA.
The opening round was a strong start for O’Malley, who threw short combinations of punches to Vera. The incumbent champ remained ahead of the fight as the pace of the fight picked up, upping his output and never leaving himself open to shots from the challenger. The toughness of Vera kept him in the fight until the end, although the damage thrown by O’Malley became visible early.
A cut opened on Vera’s head in the second round after a knee up the middle landed clean. The shot ended up rocking Vera and was one of the most notable of his strikes in a fast-tempo performance.
Vera caused a slight interruption to the near one-way traffic in the fourth round, coming out of his corner with a more aggressive game plan than before. Strikes from Vera opened up O’Malley for the first time in the fight — causing his nose to start bleeding — although it wasn’t enough for any of the three judges to score it in his favor.
O’Malley defended his belt for the first time on Saturday night, returning after dethroning Aljamain Sterling with a second-round finish last August. He earned that title shot after a split decision win in 2022 over former champ Petr Yan.
Vera came into this weekend with notable wins at bantamweight and a victory over O’Malley from the past. Vera handed O’Malley his first and only defeat in 2020, stopping him in the first round with ground and pound. While the UFC 252 fight was undoubtedly a win for Vera, it cannot go without mentioning that an ankle injury for O’Malley severely impacted his mobility in the fight and helped lead to the finish.
Following his win, O’Malley called for a title fight against lightweight champion Ilia Topuria. “He’s a scary f****** dude,” O’Malley said when asked why he wanted that fight. It’s more likely that O’Malley will now face Merab Dvalishvili, a bantamweight contender who solidified his case for a title fight with a win over Henry Cejudo last month.
A pair of second-round knockdowns earns Dustin Poirier win against rising French talent
Dustin Poirier put an end to Benoit Saint-Denis’ winning streak in the co-main event, finishing him in the second round with a series of hard punches. The strikes to Saint-Denis concluded a tough assignment for Poirier, facing a surging name who gave him trouble earlier in the fight.
Poirier scored a knockdown halfway through the second round, connecting with a left cross clean to the head of Saint-Denis. He then dropped the French talent once again, this time hurting him with a right hook. While Poirier had likely won the fight already at that point, he went to the ground for one more punch before the bout was waved off.
The constant usage of guillotine chokes from Poirier arguably hurt his gameplan earlier in the fight. Poirier lost a position to Saint-Denis in the first round after trying to counter a takedown attempt with the choke. He used the choke so much in the first round that his corner urged him in between rounds to stop going for it.
Poirier wobbled Saint-Denis with an uppercut early in the second round, stopping the contender from scoring a takedown. But Poirier followed this shot up with another choke attempt, causing Saint-Denis to eventually work out of the submission and earn control on the ground once again. Along with the brief moments of success on the canvas, Saint-Denis strung together combinations of punches that made himself a danger to Poirier.
The victory on Saturday for Poirier got him back into the win column following a high-profile defeat to Justin Gaethje last year. It also brings him closer to the title picture, where he is likely lined up behind the aforementioned Gaethje and former champ Charles Oliveira.
Saint-Denis was given a title fight after quickly putting together a winning streak in the UFC. The 28-year-old scored five finish wins since mid-2022, including fights over Matt Frevola and Ismael Bonfim. His success was a strong turnaround from his UFC debut, where he suffered a beating against Elizeu Zaleski that was excessively prolonged due to a referee deciding against stopping the fight.
Saturday’s bout was a rare five-round non-title fight on a UFC PPV. The early stoppage from Poirier means Saint-Denis has yet to experience an MMA bout longer than 15 minutes in total.
MVP out-lands Kevin Holland in UFC debut
Flashy knockout artist Michael “Venom” Page picked up a win against Kevin Holland in his UFC debut but did so in a low-output performance that didn’t include the stunning finish that many usually expect from his outings.
Page landed the better shots in a slow stand-up battle, most notably connecting with looping right hands throughout the fight. He kept the contest at a wide striking distance, allowing him to utilize his reach advantage over Holland. Along with the usual stretched-out striking stance of Page also came his taunts and mid-fight celebrations, which have become part of his brand just as much as his knockout victories.
Holland had flashes of success in the fight, like a moment where he was able to score a takedown and land ground and pound. But by the third round, he looked checked out, willing to lightly spar at most with Page.
Page was making his UFC debut following a lengthy career in Bellator. He earned 17 victories while in Bellator, finishing many low-level talents with punches. He ended his promotional run arguably with one of the stronger wins of his career, putting away veteran Goiti Yamauchi in just 26 seconds.
Despite having loads of experience in Bellator, Page felt nerves coming into the octagon this weekend. “I do think the UFC got to me a little bit,” Page said in his post-fight interview.
Holland has now suffered two consecutive losses. His previous fight came against rising welterweight Jack Della Maddalena, who beat him in a split decision.
Jack Della Maddalena keeps welterweight campaign alive with late knockout
Jack Della Maddalena avoided any possibility of a close decision loss ending his UFC winning streak, connecting with a clean knee to find a late finish victory against high-ranked welterweight contender Gilbert Burns.
Della Maddalena dropped Burns with a hard knee to the head in the third round, getting him back to the canvas right after the 170-pound fighters were getting up from a grappling exchange. The Australian prospect then returned to the ground, unloading with a long series of punches and elbows until the referee finally stopped the fight.
The late finish stopped Della Maddalena from facing the judge’s scorecards, which easily could have favored Burns after a competitive nearly three full rounds of action. Burns gave Della Maddalena significant trouble earlier in the fight, notching control time from takedowns and even having better moments than the talented striker on the feet at times.
Della Maddalena received a significant step up in competition this weekend, facing the fourth-ranked name at welterweight. While the fight certainly won’t propel him directly to a title fight against Leon Edwards, it adds the most important victory yet to his seven-fight UFC run.
After one big matchup, Della Maddalena called for another: He challenged undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov for his next matchup. Rakhmonov has put together an impressive UFC run since 2020, finishing all six of his opponents. Those victories include wins against veterans Stephen Thompson and Geoff Neal.
Burns was aiming to bounce back from a decision loss that he took against Belal Muhammad in 2023. He is now on a two-fight losing streak for the first time in his lengthy MMA career.
Petr Yan gets swagger back against Song Yadong
Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Petr Yan ended his two-year losing streak with a competitive performance against contender Song Yadong. Yan a slow-starting style, dropping the opening round before gaining control of the fight and putting together a performance that warranted a unanimous decision result.
An aggressive Song earned the first round of the fight, out-landing a well-defended Yan. The second and third rounds saw Yan take the fight over, beginning to land the better shots in stand-up exchanges against a game Song. A big plus for Yan in these rounds was his ability to end both stanzas with a takedown and allotted enough time to score punches while on top as well.
The victory for Yan was a big one, showing that he can still hang against relevant names at bantamweight. He entered this weekend on a three-fight losing streak, although the fights came against only top names at bantamweight.
In 2022, he dropped a rematch to Aljamain Sterling via split decision. Later that year, he was on the losing side of a controversial decision against Sean O’Malley. And just under a year ago, he was defeated in a five-round decision to Merab Dvalishvili, who is now being talked about as the next man in line for a title shot.
Song is currently ranked seventh in the division, admittedly making him a drop-off in challenge compared to recent opponents of Yan. Although Song certainly came into this fight with momentum that couldn’t be ignored, including five-round victories against Chris Gutierrez and Ricky Simon from last year.
The type of performance that Song submitted Saturday was not a bad one, as he came close to winning and brought a lot out of a former champ. But the loss undoubtedly sets the 26-year-old back once again as he attempts to climb one of the most competitive divisions in the promotion.
Following the bantamweight main card opener, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrived. His entrance — which took up a prolonged portion of the broadcast, airing his walk from the backstage all the way to his handshakes and hellos at Octagonside — was a reminder that UFC has become a significant platform for the political right in America. Appearances at notable UFC events have become a part of Trump’s campaign, with some analysts saying it’s one of the many ways he’s trying to reach young voters.
Curtis Blaydes, Maycee Barber pick up wins atop busy prelims
Curtis Blaydes derailed the momentum of heavyweight contender Jailton Almeida in the featured prelim spot, erasing his one-round lead with an early second-round ground and pound finish. Blaydes started to unload with hammerfist punches while Almeida attempted a single-leg takedown. These shots eventually put Almeida out, causing the referee to stop the fight. Almeida constantly took Blaydes down in the opening round, allowing him to win the round but not causing much damage in the process. Almeida entered this weekend on a six-fight UFC winning streak, including names over credible heavyweights Derrick Lewis and Jailton Almeida.
Sixth-ranked flyweight Maycee Barber picked up the biggest win of her current run, overcoming former title challenger Katlyn Cerminara on scorecards. Barber struggled when Cerminara utilized her reach advantage but was able to find success when closing the distance, clinching, and scoring takedowns. Barber has now won six consecutive fights since 2021.
Mateusz Gamrot got past veteran Rafael dos Anjos with a unanimous decision, out-landing the lightweight and constantly scoring takedowns to get the scorecard nod. Dos Anjos was looking to bounce back from a 2023 main event loss to Vicente Luque.
Kyler Phillips picked up a big win in his current climb up the bantamweight rankings, using his stand-up skills to sweep scorecards against veteran Pedro Munhoz and win via unanimous decision. Phillips has gone under the radar of an incredibly stacked bantamweight division but has earned six wins through seven UFC fights since entering the promotion in early 2020.
Philipe Lins overcame Ion Cutelaba in a stand-up performance, doing damage with leg kicks en route to a unanimous decision win. Lins has now picked up four consecutive victories since moving down to light heavyweight in 2022. In a testament to how much the UFC APEX has changed the promotion’s programming, Saturday was Lins’ first fight in front of a live audience since his 2020 UFC debut.
Michel Pereira’s lengthy winning streak at middleweight was extended to seven in a row with a fast performance against Michal Oleksiejczuk. Pereira hurt Oleksiejczuk in the opening minute with a punch and two knees to the body. He then looked for a rear naked choke on the ground, which caused the Polish talent to tap just over a minute into the round.
Robelis Despaigne lived up to the hype in his UFC debut, earning a victory that — while somewhat longer than some of his recent performances —-was still an incredibly quick win. Despaigne finished heavyweight Josh Parisian in just 18 seconds, catching him with an uppercut while backing up. Despaigne’s last four wins had all lasted 18 seconds combined.
Asu Almabaev had a dominant performance in his second UFC showing, scoring an overwhelming amount of ground control against CJ Vergara for a unanimous decision outcome. Albamaev’s record now has a 15-fight winning streak, including two fights inside the UFC cage.
Joanne Wood avenged a loss in her retirement fight, earning a split-decision victory against Maryna Moroz. Wood walked away with the win following a fight that saw a high volume of strikes in the second and third rounds. Wood’s best moment came late, dropping Moroz with a spinning back fist. Wood had a decade-long UFC career, entering the promotion in 2014 after appearing on Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter. She moved up to flyweight in 2016 and came close to a title shot against Valentina Shevchenko in 2020. Saturday ended her run in the UFC at nine wins and eight losses.
Main Card
Bout 14: Sean O’Malley def. Marlon Vera via Decision, Unanimous (UFC Bantamweight Championship)
Bout 13: Dustin Poirier def. Benoit Saint-Denis via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 2:32)
Bout 12: Michael Page def. Kevin Holland via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 11: Jack Della Maddalena def. Gilbert Burns via TKO, Strikes (RD 3, 3:43)
Bout 10: Petr Yan def. Song Yadong via Decision, Unanimous
Preliminary Card
Bout 9: Curtis Blaydes def. Jailton Almeida via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 0:36)
Bout 8: Maycee Barber def. Katlyn Cerminara via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 7: Mateusz Gamrot def. Rafael dos Anjos via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Kyler Phillips def. Pedro Munhoz via Decision, Unanimous
Early Prelims
Bout 5: Philipe Lins def. Ion Cutelaba via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 4: Michel Pereira def. Michal Oleksiejczuk via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 1:01)
Bout 3: Robelis Despaigne def. Josh Parisian via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:18)
Bout 2: Asu Almabaev def. CJ Vergara via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 1: Joanne Wood def. Maryna Moroz via Decision, Split
