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Last night’s UFC Fight Night show was hardly the most highly anticipated event. Overall though, despite a slow main event, it turned out to be well worth watching.
Fans were treated to one of the wilder brawls in recent memory, a couple of truly exceptional UFC debuts and plenty of brutal and entertaining finishes.
So with a number of fighters climbing up the ladder in their respective divisions, this show ended up producing a great deal of big winners.
With that in mind, here are the five biggest winners from UFC Fight Night: Jack Hermansson vs. Sean Strickland.
#5. Chidi Njokuani – defeated Marc-Andre Barriault in a UFC middleweight bout
Prior to last night, UFC fans had probably only heard the name Chidi Njokuani if they’d tuned into a Bellator MMA show at some point.
After last night, though, he’ll be one of the first names on everyone’s lips this week, making him undoubtedly one of last night’s big winners.
‘Chidi Bang Bang’ needed just 16 seconds to take out opponent Marc-Andre Barriault with a brutal right hand haymaker. He earned himself a nice $50k bonus in the process. When you consider that Barriault had previously never been knocked out, it’s hard to play down the impressiveness of this finish.
Despite this being his octagon debut, Njokuani has been around for a long time. Therefore, to expect him to hone his skills and become a title contender in the future might be a bridge too far for him.
However, as we all know well, UFC president Dana White and company aren’t always looking for title contenders, they also want to fill their roster with wild, exciting fighters.
In that sense, it’s easy to imagine ‘Chidi Bang Bang’ carving out a spot for himself as a reliable action fighter in the UFC going forward. A win like this probably buys him at least four or five bouts in the octagon by itself – making him one of the biggest winners from last night’s UFC show.
#4. Brendan Allen – defeated Sam Alvey in a UFC light heavyweight bout
In a bit of a rarity for a UFC show, only one fighter took a bout on late notice last night. That was Brendan Allen, who stepped in to replace the injured Phil Hawes during fight week, moving up to 205lbs in the process for a bout with Sam Alvey.
Sure, Alvey hadn’t won a fight in the octagon since 2018, and was on a winless run of seven bouts, but this was still a hugely risky move for Allen to make.
‘All In’ had lost his last bout pretty badly, suffering a TKO loss at the hands of Chris Curtis. Despite a strong overall record of 5-2 in the octagon, a defeat to Alvey could well have been enough to see him released from his contract.
However, Allen’s risk ended up paying off. After being stunned by Alvey’s trademark counter right hook in the first round, ‘All In’ took over the clash, dropped ‘Smilin Sam’ in the second round and then applied a tight choke variant to force him to tap out.
Based on his physical shape last night, there’s no way Allen will remain at 205lbs going forward. However, the victory at least moves him back onto a winning path, something he desperately needed following that loss to Curtis. ‘All In’ is now a hot prospect again, making him one of last night’s biggest winners.
#3. Shavkat Rakhmonov – defeated Carlston Harris in a UFC welterweight bout
While last night’s victory over Carlston Harris won’t be enough to move him into welterweight title contention, it’s hard not to view Shavkat Rakhmonov as one of the hottest prospects in the UFC right now.
‘Nomad’ destroyed the highly-touted Harris in the first round, stopping him with a spinning hook kick to the head and a series of follow-up punches. The win took him to 3-0 in the octagon and 15-0 in his MMA career overall.
More incredibly, though, the native of Kazakhstan has never seen the final buzzer in any of his fights. He has finished all 15 of his opponents via knockout or submission.
There are plenty of questions around ‘Nomad’ right now, mainly based on quite how he’ll deal with some adversity in the octagon. However, the same question could easily be levelled at Khamzat Chimaev, who is arguably the prospect to watch at the minute.
So can Rakhmonov gain the same kind of traction that ‘Borz’ has? Perhaps not, as he doesn’t carry the same star aura as Chimaev. However, if he keeps finishing opponents like this, it won’t be long before the fans catch on.
Either way, a wild victory and a $50k bonus mean that he was easily one of last night’s biggest winners, and his next fight will undoubtedly garner plenty of hype.
#2. Julian Erosa – defeated Steven Peterson in a UFC catchweight bout
It was hardly a surprise to learn that the UFC’s ‘Fight of the Night’ award at last night’s event went to Julian Erosa and Steven Peterson. The two men went to war for fifteen minutes, throwing everything they had at one another. ‘Juicy J’ eventually earned a split decision.
To tell the truth, this fight could probably have gone either way. Both men took some huge strikes from the other and both looked badly hurt at points. Most importantly, neither man backed down an inch in any of the three rounds.
In the end, Erosa edged things, most likely due to his faster start and stronger third round despite taking plenty of punishment in the second stanza.
Usually, you’d have to consider both men winners in a fight as good as this. Unfortunately, Peterson missed the 145lbs featherweight limit – meaning that he was ineligible to win any kind of bonus award and therefore making Erosa $100k richer.
Is ‘Juicy J’ now a contender of sorts at 145lbs? On the face of it the answer might be no. Then again, he’s 5-1 in his last six fights and has picked up three finishes in the octagon. If nothing else, given his exciting style, he’s a must-see fighter these days, which definitely makes him a big winner from last night’s show.
#1. Sean Strickland – defeated Jack Hermansson in a UFC middleweight bout
Last night’s main event was a massive opportunity for Sean Strickland to really establish himself as a title contender in the middleweight division. While his victory over Jack Hermansson was largely dull, it was also Strickland’s sixth in a row, meaning he’s become very hard to ignore.
Like his win last year over Uriah Hall, ‘Tarzan’ will probably gain no new fans from this showing. Essentially, he won due to his ability to keep Hermansson at the end of his strikes, picking at the Swedish fighter from a distance without really doing all that much damage.
Strickland himself seemed to recognize the fact that this wasn’t the best performance in his post-fight interview. He acknowledged that he had a lot of nerves coming into the fight due to “men in suits” talking of a potential title shot.
That title shot certainly won’t come in his next bout after the lack of entertainment factor here. However, ‘Tarzan’ should still be considered last night’s biggest winner as he comfortably outpointed one of the better fighters in his division.
Can he beat the likes of Jared Cannonier, Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori – not even mentioning the division’s big two in Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya? It’s highly debatable, but he’s at least earned a shot at one of them – probably in another headline bout.
