The UFC’s two flyweight divisions get a major showcase this weekend.
Deiveson Figueiredo will defend his flyweight title for the first time against Alex Perez in the main event of UFC 255 on Saturday in Las Vegas. In the co-main event, dominant UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will put her belt on the line against Jennifer Maia.
For Figueiredo, it’s a chance to reshape the division in his image, following a long reign by all-time great Demetrious Johnson and a much shorter one from Henry Cejudo. ESPN has Figueiredo ranked No. 8 in its MMA pound-for-pound rankings. In ESPN’s flyweight rankings, Figueiredo is No. 2 (behind Johnson), and Perez is No. 5.
Figueiredo (19-1) beat Joseph Benavidez via first-round submission in July to win the flyweight title. It was his second straight win over Benavidez, but the title was not on the line in February because Figueiredo missed weight. Figueiredo, 32, has won four straight fights and is 8-1 in the UFC. He has 16 stoppages in 19 pro wins, flipping on its head the notion that flyweights don’t finish fights.
Perez (24-5) has won three straight and 11 of his past 12 fights. The California native is filling in for the injured Cody Garbrandt, the former bantamweight champion who was supposed to move to flyweight and challenge Figueiredo at UFC 255. Perez, 28, is coming off a first-round TKO of Jussier Formiga via leg kicks at UFC 250 in June.
Meanwhile, Shevchenko will attempt to further her legacy in the co-headliner. “Bullet” is ESPN’s No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound women’s MMA fighter. At flyweight, Shevchenko is ranked No. 1, and Maia is No. 4.
Shevchenko (19-3) has won five straight fights. The Kyrgyzstan native has lost to only one woman in the UFC: Amanda Nunes, the current women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion. Shevchenko, 32, has three successful flyweight title defenses and is considered one of the best technical strikers — man or woman — in the sport.
Maia (18-6-1) has won three of her past four bouts. The Brazil native is coming off a first-round submission win over Joanne Calderwood in August. Maia, 32, is the former Invicta FC women’s flyweight champion.
Also on the card, Mike Perry meets Tim Means in a battle of all-action welterweights, women’s flyweight contenders Katlyn Chookagian and Cynthia Calvillo face off, and MMA legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua meets Paul Craig in a rematch of a split draw from November 2019.
Fight in progress:
Light heavyweight: Mauricio Rua (27-11-1, 11-9-1 UFC, +155) vs. Paul Craig (13-4-1, 5-4-1 UFC, -175)
Results:
Men’s flyweight: Brandon Moreno (18-5-1, 6-2-1 UFC) defeats Brandon Royval (12-5, 2-1 UFC) by first-round TKO
0:47
Brandon Royval has to pop his shoulder back into place, with the help of his corner, after a loss to Brandon Moreno in Round 1.
Recap to come.
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Middleweight: Joaquin Buckley (12-3, 2-1 UFC) defeats Jordan Wright (11-1, 1-1 UFC) by second-round KO
0:40
Fresh off his viral knockout in October, Joaquin Buckley finishes Jordan Wright in their prelim bout at UFC 255.
What was Buckley going to do for an encore after turning in the knockout of the year last month?
That was the burning question for those who had seen Buckley’s ridiculous leaping, spinning back-kick KO six weeks ago.
But this time, Buckley did not make the highlight reel with his feet. This time he used his fists, and for the second straight time handed an opponent his first career loss.
Buckley showed that the highlight reel wasn’t an accident.
Lots of power and this time used his hands to get the KO#UFC255— Herbert Burns (@HerbertBurnsMMA) November 22, 2020
Buckley, a 26-year-old from St. Louis, fought like someone carrying the pressure of expectations. He threw every punch from the hip, and early on that did not serve him well, as many of his haymakers hit nothing but air. But in the final seconds of the first round, Buckley clipped Wright with a flurry of punches and dropped him. He didn’t have time before the horn to finish the fight, but he had his opponent hurt.
How hurt? Buckley wasted no time after the break to find out. He went right at Wright at the start of Round 2 and dropped him, and referee Herb Dean jumped in quickly as Buckley was unloading another flurry of punches. The end came at 18 seconds of the round.
For Buckley, it was his second straight victory after dropping his UFC debut.
Wright, 29, fights out of Los Angeles. He showed strong standup early, keeping Buckley at distance and avoiding big shots. But even when he was landing kicks to the body, they did not prevent his opponent from advancing. It seemed like just a matter of time. And it was.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Women’s strawweight: Antonina Shevchenko (9-2, 3-2 UFC) defeats Ariane Lipski (13-6, 2-3 UFC) by second-round TKO
0:48
The referee is forced to stop the fight as Ariane Lipski is unable to fight back with Antonia Shevchenko on top of her unleashing a downpour of punches.
A multiple-time world Muay Thai champion like her sister Valentina, Antonina Shevchenko is known for her striking skills. But both sisters have mastered the other aspects of MMA, as well. And Antonina demonstrated that Saturday night.
Shevchenko stopped Lipski via TKO at 4:33 of the second round in a women’s flyweight bout. Shevchenko used her wrestling and grappling skills to get Lipski down in both rounds. From there, she got into dominant position and landed hard ground and pound until referee Chris Tognoni pulled her off.
In the first round, Shevchenko took Lipski down with a head-and-arm throw. She nearly lost position in a scramble, but Shevchenko got in top position and landed punches. Shevchenko got Lipski down again in the second with a throw, ended up in mount and then took Lipski’s back. All the while, Shevchenko was landing punches.
“I did what I want to do — improve as a fighter,” Shevchenko said in her postfight interview. “Improve my grappling, improve my wrestling. … You have to be good everywhere.”
Shevchenko, who celebrated her 36th birthday Friday, has won three of five fights in the UFC. The Kyrgyzstan native has two finishes in her last three fights. Lipski, a 26-year-old Brazil native, had a two-fight winning streak snapped.
— Raimondi
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Welterweight: Nicolas Dalby (19-3-1 1 NC, 2-0 1 NC UFC) defeats Daniel Rodriguez (13-2, 3-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Dalby won the fight by winning the battle over distance control, ending Rodriguez’s 10-fight winning streak.
It took Rodriguez most of the way through Round 1 to find his range. Dalby maintained his distance early on, and the 36-year-old out of Copenhagen, Denmark, landed kicks while Rodriguez was having trouble closing in on him with punches. When Rodriguez finally did find Dalby, he landed some crisp punches and had Dalby in retreat as the horn sounded to end the first five minutes.
— UFC News (@UFCNews) November 22, 2020
From that point on, however, Rodriguez never showed the urgency to get in Dalby’s face. This was by no means a Dalby runaway — both men landed plenty, and Rodrigiuez had a big edge in significant strikes in each of the first two rounds. But Dalby never allowed his opponent to gain any momentum.
Two judges scored the bout 29-28 and the other had it 30-27, all for Dalby, who ran his unbeaten streak to seven in a row.
Rodriguez, who is 33 and fights out of Alhambra, California, lost for the first time in the UFC.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Welterweight: Alan Jouban (17-7, 8-5 UFC) defeats Jared Gooden (17-5, 0-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Jouban put the squeeze on a guillotine choke. He swept into mount and it looked like Gooden was either on the verge of tapping out or going unconscious. Then, the bell sounded, signifying the end of the fight
No, Jouban didn’t get the finish he tried incredibly hard for. But he did earn a unanimous-decision win (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) over Gooden in a welterweight bout. It was the first time Jouban, a popular veteran, has competed since April 2019.
Thank you @JGNiteTrain23 for bringing the war tonight! All positive vibes for you moving forward! 🙌🏼👊🏻@ufc pic.twitter.com/EKbYV65O5o
— Alan Jouban (@AlanJouban) November 22, 2020
The bout itself was a very entertaining one. Jouban attacked nicely with a beautiful straight left and nice kicks to the body from the southpaw stance. Gooden, though, was able to absorb all of those shots and answer with powerful boxing. Jouban’s right eye was damaged because of a clash of heads in the first round and it looked bad by the third round. But Jouban still did more than enough to win.
The second round is what separated Jouban. Rather than loading up for haymakers like Gooden did, Jouban was content to land a jab, that straight left and some hard kicks to the body and legs. Several times, Jouban let loose with combinations that landed. Gooden came back in the third to land some hard right hands. But Jouban snared Gooden’s neck in a scramble and almost finished in the closing seconds with a guillotine.
Jouban, 38, has won two of three but has dropped three of five altogether. The Louisiana native, who lives and works as a model in California, was once considered a welterweight contender. Gooden, a 26-year-old Georgia resident, came in on a three-fight winning streak. This was Gooden’s UFC debut.
— Raimondi
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Middleweight: Kyle Daukaus (10-1, 1-1 UFC) defeats Dustin Stoltzfus (13-2, 0-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Daukaus got back on track after suffering his first career defeat in his UFC debut in June, getting the better of a fight that mostly was contested with the fighters chest-to-chest against the cage.
Daukaus, a 27-year-old out of Philadelphia, got the better of the exchanges on those sporadic occasions when the fighters were at distance, utilizing the long reach that comes with his 6-foot-3 frame. But mostly, this was a clinch fest, and Stoltzfus’ best weapon in those tight exchanges was dropping for a leg lock, which he did a couple of times to escape trouble.
But the 29-year-old Stoltzfus, who also is a Pennsylvania native, could not produce enough offense to keep Daukaus away from him. As a result, he saw a 10-fight winning streak end in his UFC debut.
Two judges scored the bout 30-27 and the other had it 30-26.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Welterweight: Sasha Palatnikov (6-2, 1-0 UFC) defeats Louis Cosce (7-1, 0-1 UFC) by third-round TKO
Palatnikov got smashed with combinations in the first round and was nearly finished. He took two hard strikes below the belt. Yet, somehow, the debuting UFC fighter ended up not only with his hand raised but with a finish.
Palatnikov stopped Cosce via TKO at 2:27 of the third round in a welterweight bout to open UFC 255. The bout was a war of attrition. Cosce beat Palatnikov up in the first round, which was one of the most exciting rounds of the year in MMA. Both men were bloody by the end.
What a start to #UFC255!!!
— Steve-O (@steveo) November 22, 2020
Cosce caught Palatnikov with punches while Palatnikov was in the middle of a front roll in the first round. Palatnikov was trying to escape, but it didn’t work. Cosce poured it on from there, landing huge combinations. Palatnikov managed to survive the onslaught — and actually come back with big offense in the first. He landed hard elbows and a wild spinning back fist before the close of the initial five minutes.
“I knew, he’s a muscular guy,” Palatanikov said in his postfight interview. “If he [gives you] a few big shots and can’t drop you, he’ll get tired. … If I get hit, I get woken up.”
Palatnikov was the aggressor the rest of the way. He did absorb two low blows — one in the second and one in the third — but persevered through them. After the latter groin shot, Palatnikov came back from a pause in the action to rock Cosce with a huge right hand. He then slammed Cosce with punches on the ground until referee Chris Tognoni stepped in to call it.
Palatnikov, 31, is the first-ever Hong Kong-born fighter in UFC history. The Syndicate MMA product cashed as a +400 underdog. Cosce, a 25-year-old California native, earned his way into the UFC via a first-round TKO win over Victor Reyna on Dana White’s Contender Series in August.
— Raimondi
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Still to come:
Men’s flyweight: Deiveson Figueiredo (c) (19-1, 8-1 UFC, -280) vs. Alex Perez (24-5, 6-1 UFC, +240)
Women’s flyweight: Valentina Shevchenko (c) (19-3, 8-2 UFC, -1600) vs. Jennifer Maia (18-6-1, 3-2 UFC, +900)
Welterweight: Mike Perry (14-6, 7-6 UFC, -130) vs. Tim Means (30-12-1 1 NC, 12-9 1 NC UFC, +110)
Women’s flyweight: Katlyn Chookagian (14-4, 7-4 UFC, +220) vs. Cynthia Calvillo (9-1-1, 6-1-1 UFC, -260)
(c) = defending champion
