Yan Xiaonan secured a decision victory to cap off Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night card from the quiet Apex in Las Vegas.
Xiaonan competed against Mackenzie Dern in the strawweight main event that required all five rounds before producing a winner.
The card was notable for the fact that it was closed to the public including members of the media. After publicly denying that Mark Zuckerberg had rented out the Apex to watch the card, the Facebook founder was seen cage side throughout the fight card.
Mark Zuckerberg is hyped Octagon-side at #UFCVegas61 🙌
📸: @ufc pic.twitter.com/qD0bOj6J6H
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 2, 2022
The Team Alpha Male member defeated Dern by majority decision on scores of 48-47 twice and judge Michael Bell scored it a draw 47-47 with a 10-8 round for Dern in the fifth.
Dern had her most success in the second and fifth rounds when she got the fight to the ground and was threatening with submissions. In the fifth, it was a dominant round for Dern, who attempted an armbar in the closing seconds but Xiaonan escaped danger and freed her arm.
While Dern landed more strikes in total, it was Xiaonan with the greater number of significant strikes and scored big with 46 leg kicks throughout the fight, according to UFC Stats.
All three judges scored rounds one, three, and four for Xiaonan, who improves to 16-3 with one no-contest on her record. Xiaonan bounces back to the column after back-to-back losses to Carla Esparza and Marina Rodriguez in her previous two fights and earning her first win in nearly two years.
Dern falls to 12-3 and has lost two of her last three fights.
Randy Brown won his fourth fight in a row with a unanimous decision victory against ten-year UFC veteran Francisco Trinaldo. Brown won the first two rounds on all three scorecards while landing strikes consistently to the leg, head, and body before his output slowed in the final round. Brown has not lost a fight since August 2020 and has won six of his last seven fights.
Trinaldo falls to 28-9 after completing his 26th fight in the octagon.
Raoni Barcelos defeated Trevin Jones by unanimous decision on scores of 30-27 twice and judge Junichiro Kamijo scored 10-8 rounds for Barcelos in the second and third. According to UFC Stats, Barcelos landed 73 significant strikes compared to 11 by Jones throughout the fight including 19 of 21 to the body and 51 of 95 to the head of Jones.
Barcelo, a Brazilian National No-Gi champion, ended a two-fight losing skid posting his first victory since November 2020 after losses to Timur Valiev and Victory Henry. It was Jones’ third consecutive loss in the promotion and sees his overall record drop to 13-9 with one no-contest.
Sodiq Yussuf made quick work of Don Shainis with a tight guillotine choke at 0:30 of the opening round to improve to 13-2 and 6-1 inside the UFC since coming off Dana White’s Contender Series. Yussuf was scheduled to fight Giga Chikadze last month but the fight fell apart and Yusuff was moved to this card on short notice. He opened the fight with several vicious knees to the body from the clinch position before locking on the fight-ending submission.
And the main card opened with Mike Davis defeating Viacheslav Borshchev by unanimous decision with scores of 30-26, 30-26, and 29-28. It extends Davis’ win streak to three with a record of 10-2.
Here are the complete results from the card:
*Guido Cannetti def. Randy Costa by rear-naked choke at 1:04 of Round 1
*Chelsea Chandler def. Julija Stoliarenko by TKO at 4:15 of Round 1
*Brendan Allen def. Krzysztof Jotko by rear-naked choke at 4:17 of Round 1
*Joaquim Silva def. Jesse Ronson by TKO at 3:08 of Round 2
*Ilir Latifi def. Aleksei Oleinik by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Daniel Santos def. John Castaneda by KO at 4:28 of Round 2
*Mike Davis def. Viacheslav Borshchev by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-28)
*Sodiq Yussuf def. Don Shainis by guillotine choke at 0:30 of Round 1
*Raoni Barcelos def. Trevin Jones by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27)
*Randy Brown def. Francisco Trinaldo by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Yan Xiaonan def. Mackenzie Dern by majority decision (48-47, 48-47, 47-47)
