History was made last night right in the heart of New York at Madison Square Gardens, with Islam Makhachev taking home his second UFC title and is now the champion of Welterweight and Lightweight class divisions. The main card was already destined to be quite an exciting night, with most of the fights ending in a KO/TKO it was definitely no boring night in the octagon. Now lets get into the main card.
Beneil Dariush VS Benoit Saint-Denis – Lightweight
(Photo credit @UFCFRA on X.com)
First fight of the main card and it was over and done with in just 16 seconds, just as the first round started, Saint-Denis delivered a quick left hook to his US opponent, knocking him to the ground. This will definitely go down as one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history.
Post-match interview: The French fighter was interviewed by Joe Rogan after the match and this is what he had to say: “First of all it’s veterans weeks so I’d like to thank all veterans for their duties and the UFC for their support of veterans.” When asked if he’d like to chase for the lightweight title or another opponent he simply replied with: “I will do whatever the UFC tell me to do, I am a solider.”
Leon Edwards VS Carlos Prates – Welterweight
(Photo credit to @mmaonpoint on X.com)
Yet another knockout fight, going for two rounds and finishing at 1 minute 28 seconds of the second round. In the first round we saw a lot of grappling techniques being used with Edwards at one point jumping on Prates back, where we saw this very funny image of Prates not seeming to care all too much. Nearing the end of the first round, Prates was thankfully saved by the bell as the English fighter managed to secure him in a rear naked chokehold on the ground. Second round saw the pair both delivering some quick jabs and kicks to one another and then Prates delivered a quick left jab to his opponents face knocking him out.
Post-Match interview: During the interview Prates had this to say to the crowd: “When somebody tried to grapple me, doing boring things, I think you guys pay tickets to watch violence, you wanna see blood, not boring fights!” He finished by saying “I wanna be back here to face a champ!”
Sean Brady VS Michael Morales – Welterweight
(Photo credit to bloodyelbow.com)
Third fight of the main card, third knockout of the main card, this fight also finishing in the first round with 1 minute and 33 seconds left to go. This was a rather dominating fight with Morales having done a lot of damage to Brady leaving him with a cut next to his right eye, Morales chased Brady around the octagon a lot, constantly delivering quick jabs and hooks to the US fighter. But eventually Morales managed to deliver his opponent a quick jab then an uppercut and then finishing him off with some ground and pound action. Morales is still an undefeated fighter in the UFC, with this being his 19th consecutive win in a row he is surely a champion in the making.
Post-match interview: Morales, alongside his translator had this to say during the interview: “Thank you to everybody that is here from Ecuador and Latin America and big thank you to my mom, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.” He finished by saying: “You know you can smell a knockout when it’s coming, I know I got a little bit undisciplined, but I think it worked and everybody enjoyed the fight.”
Valentina Shevchenko VS Weili Zhang – Woman’s Flyweight – Co-main
(Photo credit to @ufc on X.com)
The first fight of the main card that didn’t end in a KO/TKO and lasted all five rounds but was pure domination by Shevchenko, who was very keen on delivering a lot of kicks and knees to her opponent. Halfway through the first round Shevchenko performed a takedown and tried to submit her opponent but Zhang was thankfully saved by the bell. After the first round, Shevchenko really started to ramp up her takedowns on Zhang, with a lot of body slams to the ground and a lot more ground and pound action being played. Final round of the fight and for the last 4 minutes of the fight, the pair were mostly on the ground, with Shevchenko just constantly beating on her opponent and trying to go in for a submission. In the end the fight went to the judges score cards and Shevchenko won by unanimous decision and successfully defended her title as woman’s flyweight champion.
Post-match interview: Joe Rogan asked her if there was anything surprising about her opponent to which she replied: “I was preparing for this fight as it was my hardest fight in my life, I knew I couldn’t trash Weili as she has super power punch knockouts.” She finished by saying: “I want to dedicate this belt to my coach, because he is the man who is behind all my success”, she then proceeded to hand over the belt to her coach and bow towards him as a sign of respect.
Jack Della Maddalena VS Islam Makhachev – Welterweight – Main Event
(Photo credit @ufc on X.com)
The main fight of the night and one of the most important fights of the year, Dagestani fighter Islam Makhachev and Australian fighter Jack Della Maddalena, both champion fighters and it was definitely not a fight to disappoint. Throughout the entirety of this fight we saw Makhachev was heavily focused on grappling and takedowns, getting Maddalena down to the ground or getting ontop of his back like we saw in the first round. Nearing the end of the first round Maddalena was given a warning for an illegal kick to Makhachev’s face. Throughout the fight Makhachev really stuck to Maddalena like glue, constantly tackling him, ground and pounding and trying to force submission holds, but Maddalena kept on fighting back.
(Photo credit to @owenswdMMA on X.com)
Makhachev delivered a lot of leg kicks which definitely proved to be handy as his opponent was struggling to stand on his lead leg which kept allowing the Dagestani fighter to keep tackling him to the ground. By the end of the fifth round it was clear that Makhachev was the winner after his pure domination in the octagon and he is now the undisputed champion of the Lightweight and Welterweight UFC divisions.
Post-match interview: After the match Makhachev was greeted by his cousin and UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov and another fellow Dagestani celebrity Hasbulla as well as his team.
(Photo credit to @ufc on X.com)
A very ecstatic but exhausted Makhachev started by saying: “This is the dream, all my life I worked for these two belts. I am really happy”. When asked when he would like to defend this world title again he had a rather odd response for Joe Rogan: “Donald Trump, let’s go open the White House!”.
