5 most explosive moments from UFC 266: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega

#4. Jessica Andrade gets back to winning ways in style

Jessica Andrade pulled out a vintage performance to take out Cynthia Calvillo.

The last time we saw Jessica Andrade in the octagon, she was thoroughly whitewashed by UFC flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko in one of the most one-sided title bouts in UFC history.

Despite her berserker reputation, it probably would’ve been understandable if ‘Bate Estaca’ had come into last night’s fight with Cynthia Calvillo looking a little gunshy. Thankfully for the fans in attendance, that wasn’t the case at all. Andrade battered Calvillo in an excellent – and violent – performance, ensuring she’ll remain near the top of her division for some more time.

It wasn’t that Calvillo couldn’t get anything going in this fight. In fact, she landed plenty of strikes of her own, including some genuinely crisp jabs. However, she simply couldn’t match the power of her Brazilian opponent, and every time Andrade landed cleanly, it looked like she hurt her opponent.

In the end, it was a wild flurry of punches that did for Calvillo. Andrade was so aggressive and threw so many shots that in all honesty, it was difficult to tell which was the killer blow. In fact, the sequence resembled something from Wanderlei Silva’s highlight reel.

The finish unfortunately didn’t net Andrade a $50K bonus – probably because Calvillo wilted rather than being knocked completely unconscious. But it did hand her a big UFC win on her birthday. How can you complain about that?

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#3. UFC 266 - Merab Dvalishvili unleashes hell on Marlon Moraes

Merab Dvalishvili picked up his biggest UFC win to date over Marlon Moraes.

The UFC doesn’t have awards for comebacks of the night. But if they did, Merab Dvalishvili would’ve been a definite winner at UFC 266. ‘The Machine’ picked up the biggest win of his UFC career last night, but he had to swim through some deep waters to do it.

Early on in the fight, it looked like Marlon Moraes would be the fighter getting his hand raised. The former UFC bantamweight challenger hammered Dvalishvili with his striking game in the first round, knocking him from pillar to post and seemingly having him on the verge of going out on two occasions.

However, somehow ‘The Machine’ survived, secured a trademark takedown, and then turned the tables. He beat Moraes with brutal ground-and-pound for the remainder of the stanza.

In the second round, the Georgia native continued his assault, taking Moraes down and unleashing hell in the form of continuous punches, elbows and forearm strikes. Moraes managed to escape at one point. But – living up to his nickname – Dvalishvili was simply relentless. He retook the Brazilian down, and continued to batter him en route to a TKO stoppage.

The victory put Dvalishvili on a seven-fight winning streak in the UFC. But more to the point, it showed he has absolutely tremendous heart – making him a tricky match for anyone in the bantamweight division.