Prelims recap

New York Times

09-03-2025

Ankalaev impresses with precision, becoming the new UFC light heavyweight champion by unanimous decision
The main card at UFC 313 from Las Vegas is about to get underway!
As a reminder, here's how that card shakes out: Light heavyweight title: Alex Pereira vs. Magmomed Ankalaev
Lightweight: Justin Gaethje vs. Ravael Fiziev
Lightweight: Jalin Turner vs. Ignacio Bahamondes
Women's strawweight: Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
Lightweight: King Green vs. Maurício Ruffy
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Van wins by unanimous decision as all three judges score the fight 30-27 in his favor. He completely halted the wrestling advances of Tsuruya and landed basically all the significant strikes in the final prelim matchup.
Impressive victory for the fighter from Myanmar.
Van lands a nice elbow early in the round as Tsuruya remains steadfast in his desire to wrestle. The Japanese fighter has not been very successful on this front but it's clearly a point of emphasis. Tsuruya takes a shot to the groin with just over three minutes remaining, resulting in a brief timeout.
After the break, Tsuruya goes for a takedown but Van holds him up and delivers several powerful punches to the ribs of his opponent. He has dominated in terms of significant strikes and Tsuruya looks uncomfortable on his feet.
Van adds an exclamation in the final seconds, landing a powerful punch to the head of Tsuruya.
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Tsuruya continues to aggressively go for takedowns to utilize his wrestling skills but Van has been able to consistently get back to his feet in this slow-paced battle.
When Van is on his feet, he has walked down Tsuruya, even landing a couple of significant strikes including a powerful knee. This is likely a close fight on the cards at the moment.
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Tsuruya attempts to establish his dominance via grappling early on in the first round but Van wards off his advances. Even when the fighter from Myanmar was taken down by Tsuruya, he quickly got back to his feet, even landing a few nice shots to the body.
This final prelim fight has been a clash of styles thus far.
We are moments away from the final fight of the prelims, a Flyweight battle between Joshua Van and Rei Tsuruya.
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"Hello Las Vegas! I'm very very happy to go here," Ferreira says in English. "I am very blessed. Thank you so much."
He continued in Spanish with the help of a translator: "I'm a black belt in judo. You saw that takedown. I'm a black belt in jujitsu. You saw that finish. That's it, the Bruno that you need to know. I've got the complete arsenal. I'm very happy about that finish."
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Despite dealing with an apparent eye issue, Ferriera outduels Petrosyan in the second round and piledrives him into the fence to end the round — then locks Petrosyan's arm between his legs to force the Armenian to tap out and finish a very strong, decisive comeback for the win.
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Both fighters spend the first minute and a half largely sizing each other up before Ferreira lands a solid roundhouse jab of Pentrosyan. However, Petrosyan's response is two quick groin strikes that force a timeout and draw the ire of the crowd as Ferreira grimaces. The referee tells Petrosyan he'll be disqualified on his next groin strike.
Despite having to be more cautious with his kicking, Petrosyan lands some solid upper and lower body blows while Ferriera gets a few jabs as well before the two wrap each other up. Neither side is able to land a decisive blow by the time the round ends.
Next up, in the middleweight division, Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan.
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After taking time to thank God, Carlos Leal commented on the controversial decision that gave him the loss in his last fight
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm 2-0," Leal told Joe Rogan through a translator. "I know this, you know this, my former opponent knows this. Right now, I'm 2-0 in the UFC."
Leal also took a moment to celebrate international women's day and shout out his wife and mother.
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Midway through the first round, Leal really got rolling, landing flurries on punches, elbows and backfists.
Sensing Morono being in trouble, Leal applied pressure against his dazed opponent, who continued to battle with his back to the cage.
The referee exhibited patience but eventually had to step in and call the fight as the Brazilian continued to tee off.
Very impressive performance to get a first-round stoppage.
Did Mairon Santos think he had done enough to defeat Francis Marshall in their bout?
"Yes, yes," he told Joe Rogan. "He had a good first round, but second and third, he did take me down but he didn't do anything with it. His face was bleeding, I was doing a lot more damage with the jabs, and after the first round, he didn't do anything. Those takedowns that he landed were just to stop the fight, not to do real damage. So I think I won fair and square."
We are now moments away from a battle between Alex Morono and Carlos Leal in the Welterweight division.
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A bit of a surprise as Mairon Santos defeats Francis Marshall by split decision. Santos definitely had the advantage by quantity of strikes, but Marshall seemed to land the bigger blows. The crowd, on the American's side, doesn't like it and boos rain down as Marshall waves his hand and exits the ring. Santos narrowly avoids a significant upset in what would have been his first-ever UFC loss.
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Santos ramps his aggression back up, and lands more strikes than Marshall, but it may not be enough as he is taken down by the American late for the third time in as many rounds.
Santos had more strikes by the raw numbers, but Marshall had the tougher hits and bigger moments. We await the judges' decision...
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Santos dialed back the aggressiveness in round two, especially with his kicks, in an effort to avoid another disaster. But he still lands enough to get Marshall's nose to start bleeding and again refuses to yield when Marshall goes for a takedown, refusing to let the American clinch another round. Marshall may have done enough to win regardless, however.
We head to round three with Marshall putting up a fight but the favorite Santos still very much in it.
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Santos lands a couple of early long jabs, but Marshall nearly ends this fight before it begins by sweeping Santos's leg and knocking him off his feet, though the Brazilian jumps right back up. Santos then quickly returns the favor with a quick knockdown of his own on another rangy jab.
A very evenly fought first round suddenly swings toward Marshall as he knocks Santos down again thanks to a left hand to the jaw and then jumps on top of him. Marshall is unable to land a knockout blow but his decisive knockdown is plenty enough to win round one.
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Ankalaev impresses with precision, becoming the new UFC light heavyweight champion by unanimous decision
Here are the judges' scorecards for the unanimous decision in the UFC light heavyweight title bout between Alex Pereira and Magmomed Ankalaev. Two judges had Ankalaev winning the middle three rounds while Sal D'Amato had Ankalaev taking the fifth round as well.
An extremely close fight, capped off by a very tight fifth round, goes to a judge's decision — and we have a new champion! By unanimous decision, Magomen Ankalaev is the new undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion, running his unbeaten streak in UFC fights up to 14.
It's an incredible feat of endurance from the Russian, who outlasted the reigning champion and refused to let Pereira land anything close to a knockout blow throughout five rounds.
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Ankalaev record the first notable strike of the final round but Pereira absorbs the hit to the head. Both fighters are remaining patient in what has certainly been the most competitive fight of the night. Excellent display of skill and poise.
Halfway through the fifth round, Pereira begins to walk down Ankalaev with intentionality, stunning him with a high kick. This strike briefly halted Ankalaev's aggression.
He shakes it off however and attempts to grapple with Pereira in the final minute. The champ holds his own but is unable to escape before the final bell dings and we head to the cards for the decision.
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Ankalaev comes out Pereira against the fence in an attempt to get him down. He lands a couple nice shots on the current champion but nothing much else initially. Periera momentarily gets free but is immediately pinned back against the fence before he can do much damage. The two exchange some short jabs before the referee separates them, and Ankalaev immediately comes up swinging on Pereira again.
The crowd boos as Ankalaev pins Pereira for a third time in the round and continues to slowly pummel him. Pereira, who's showing signs of physical exhaustion, is probably at the point where he needs one of his patented knockout blows to avoid what will be a close judge's decision if it goes that route.
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After landing a powerful strike to end round two, Ankalaev begins round three as the aggressor. He continues to mix in leg kicks, hoping to wear down the lower half of Pereira.
Pereira continues to close the gap but is being judicious with his strikes, presumably waiting for an opportunity to do legitimate damage. Ankalaev looks rather comfortable as he attempts several grapples but the champion continues to wiggle out of his grasp. Pereira has spent a good portion of this round moving backwards.
The intensity is palpable.
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Both fighters spend a solid minute sizing each other up before Ankalaev lands two nice body blows and kicks on Pereira.
The reigning champion is very conservative, and Ankalaev refuses to be aggressive in his own right — until responding to a Pereira kick with four solid jabs. Ankalaev then unleashes another flurry of jabs as a counterattack on a Pereira strike. He then finishes with a solid left-handed swing right at Periera's face.
Ankalaev ends up as by far the more active fighter in that round, and most importantly, his punches largely land. He also gets in several solid kicks that will likely weaken Pereira's legs. That should give the Russian a round two win on the judges' scorecards.
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Pereira opens the festivities by connecting with five of his patented calf kicks in the first minute, though both fighters are displaying patience early on in this fight. Ankalaev has maintained distance but also retalitated with a couple calf kicks of his own.
Pereira has increased his aggression later in the round, firing several head kicks but he's unable to land anything of significance. Ankalaev has displayed great poise thus far but he has taken consistent blows to the calf that could prove pivotal down the line.
The fight we've been waiting all night for is just around the corner!
Alex Pereira is about to defend his light heavyweight title against Magomed Ankalaev to cap off a rather entertaining card at UFC 313.
Is the best yet to come? Let's find out.
Here are Alex Pereira's incredible stats heading into his light heavyweight title defense fight.
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Comeback complete for Justin Gaethje, both in terms of the fight itself and his response after getting knocked out by Max Holloway 11 months ago. He wins 29-28 by unanimous decision. Gaethje and Fiziev share a lot of respect afterwards and Gaethje also gives plenty of credit to his opponent, who entered this match on short notice, in his post-fight interview.
"I don't give a s--t how far down you are, it's on you to get back on the f---ing horse," Gaethje said of his ability to rebound from his knockout loss.
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Fiziev comes out aggressive after an early stalemate in the third round with several well-placed body blows before Gaethje connects with a solid uppercut. A wheel kick attempt nearly backfires on the American, however, and Gaethje has to retreat. He rallies with some more blows to the head and body of Fiziev, who reponds with a well-placed kick.
Fiziev's energy wanes as the round goes on and Gaethje lands some more hard strikes — but still can't take his opponent down. Fiziev tries to respond, but Gaethje keeps up his attack. This is going to the judges, but Gaethje appears to have completed the comeback after looking surprisingly shaky in round one.
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Despite likely winning round one, Fiziev appears to be battling some swelling near his eye as well as a toe injury. Gaethje gains momentum as the round goes on, landing some impressive upper body blows while Fiziev still focuses on doing his damage through kicks.
Then, Gaethje fully seizes momentum by decking Fiziev with a well-placed uppercut to the jaw. Gaethje quickly jumps on Fiziev but is unable to finish him off.
But the American wins round two handily to force a pivotal round three with the score likely 19-19.
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Round 1 begins with some booming "U-S-A" and "Gaet-hje" chants but the crowd is instantly stunned by two impressive takedowns by Fiziev on Gaethje, and the underdog Fiziev lands some impressive blows and gets a brief chokehold in the process.
Gaethje responds, however, with some strong jabs to the face but fails in a late takedown attempt of his own on Fiziev.
Both Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev have made their way to the octagon with plenty of hype.
This is Gaethje's first fight since his dramatic knockout loss to Max Holloway at UFC 300 in this very same building 11 months ago.
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It's time — No. 3 ranked Lightweight Justin Gaethje vs. No. 11 Rafael Fiziev in a rematch of their epic 2023 bout, coming up shortly.
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Is this the last we'll see of Turner in the Octagon? Turner appeared to tell Bahamondes something to the effect of "I'm done" when they embraced after the match. This was seen as a pivotal match for the next stage of the 29-year-old Turner's career, and it went about as poorly as possible for "The Tarantula."
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