The Real Winners and Losers from UFC on ESPN 61

It was a UFC card only a hardcore fan could love.

A collection of 20 obviously talented but just as obviously anonymous (to the mainstream) fighters got together Saturday evening (and night) for a 10-bout Fight Night card from the MMA giant's Apex facility home base in Las Vegas.

Ranked heavyweights Marcin Tybura (eighth) and Serghei Spivac (ninth) engaged in a scheduled five-rounder atop the show, which also included two ranked vs. ranked women's bantamweight matchups—one on the prelim portion and one on the main card.

Tybura, 38, arrived amid a run of eight wins in 10 fights after he'd begun his stay with the company with just four wins in his first nine. Spivac, meanwhile, was 7-4 in a UFC stay that began five years ago, but he hadn't fought in 11 months since being stopped in two rounds by highly regarded Ciryl Gane on a Fight Night show last September.

Tybura won a unanimous decision, sweeping all three rounds on two scorecards and taking two of three on another, over Spivac when they met for the first time in February 2020.

The B/R combat team was in position to take it all in and deliver a real-time assessment of the show's definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

If you ever wondered whether Michael Bisping and Paul Felder know what they were looking at, wonder no more.

The ex-fighters and current analysts were a few feet away from the main-event action as Serghei Spivac, from his back, began setting aggressive opponent Marcin Tybura up for what appeared to be an unlikely submission.

Bisping and Felder mused about the prospect of an armbar but deemed it improbable in a heavyweight fight between two gargantuan opponents. Within seconds, though, that's exactly what happened as Spivac spun to the side, cinched Tybura's right arm to the point that escape was impossible and generated a verbal submission at 1:44 of the first.

It was a convincing reversal to the result of their initial bout in 2020, which Tybura won by unanimous decision. But Spivac had gone 6-2 since then, and, at nine years younger, looked the fresher and more energetic combatant in the brief encounter.

"That's a day one move in jiu-jitsu," Bisping said. "A classic armbar from your back."

Spivac, who arrived ranked ninth among the heavyweights to Tybura's eighth, said he'd trained for the possibility of seeking his eighth career submission and was optimistic about his prospects to land a fight with an opponent in the top half of the heavyweight rankings.

"I don't have an exact name," he said, "but anybody above me in the rankings. That's what I want. I'm ready for anyone above me."

If you like your boxing dirty, this was the co-main event for you.

Featherweight combatants Damon Jackson and Chepe Mariscal barely spent a moment outside of a close-quarters tie-up across 15 full minutes, delivering all manners of knees, elbows and other interior damage to one another.

Ultimately, a Mariscal takedown in the second round proved the turning point, leaving Jackson vulnerable to dozens of targeted ground strikes with fists and elbows that left the 36-year-old Texan bloodied and visually compromised after 10 minutes.

Mariscal kept his foot on the gas in the third, taking his rival down and scrambling his way out of what danger he encountered on the way to a punishing decision victory that had analyst Paul Felder singing his praises from the cage-side table as Jackson stumbled woozily back to his corner team.

"(He's got) an endless gas tank, refuses to accept any kind of position and he's constantly on the offense as well," Felder said. "(He's) a really tough style matchup for anybody in this division."

The scores were 30-25, 30-25 and 30-26 for Mariscal, who's won four in a row since arriving to the promotion in 2023.

"Outside of the cage I'm a different person," Mariscal said. "Inside the cage I'm just reckless dynamite. I want to get in there and put on a show."

It became one of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s go-to mantras, particularly as he wound down his career with twice-yearly clinics against seemingly overmatched foes.

"There's levels to this."

There appeared to be a clear crossover to the UFC on Saturday night's main card, where 28-fight veteran Chris Gutierrez was in against late-stage substitute Quang Le, a 32-year-old from Vietnam who'd fought just eight times in four years and was preparing for an upcoming September date on Dana White's Contender Series.

The spot became available when Javid Basharat was injured, but rather than folding quickly as most prohibitive underdogs do, Le was an active participant—getting Gutierrez to the mat in both the first and second rounds and at least pondering the idea of a rear-naked choke finish when he took his foe's back.

"Anytime you're standing across from someone who's good enough to make it to the UFC," analyst Michael Bisping said, "you're in danger."

The fight was arguably even heading down the stretch before Gutierrez pulled away with a steady stream of hard kicks to Le's left calf that were accompanied by follow-up head shots as his mobility became more and more limited.

All three judges gave Gutierrez 29-28 nods on the scorecards.

"I'd be lying if I said (I felt no pressure), because I'm supposed to win," he said. "He said he was gonna knock me out, so I took that personally. He took his lickings and he'll come back a better man."

Score one for professionalism.

Though the circumstances of Chelsea Chandler's five-pound weight miss for a Saturday main-card bantamweight bout with Yana Santos were not disclosed, it wasn't hard to imagine—at least subconsciously—that the fans and broadcast crew were instantly rooting for Santos because of it.

Which may have made the one-sidedness of the bout even more enjoyable.

Chandler was forced to surrender 25 percent of her fight purse and Santos fought as if she were annoyed, if not downright angry, with her fleshy opponent from the outset, pelting her with precise punches and kicks for much of the 15 minutes.

"I don't blame her (for being angry)," analyst Michael Bisping said. "It's an insult."

Chandler was dumped to the floor with a hard right hand early in the second and was never a real competitive factor throughout, clearly coming out on the wrong end of the speed and skill department on the way to a wide decision loss.

Two judges gave Santos all three rounds and the others gave her two of three.

"It p-ssed me off so much," said the former featherweight title challenger, who was stopped in one round by Cris Cyborg in 2018. "I feel that it's so unfair. A girl like this, she got fat, she didn't try to make weight."

This just in: Toshiomi Kazama is a tough, tough dude.

The Japanese submission ace looked like a million bucks in the first round of a bantamweight duel with Charalampos Grigoriou, staying in control for nearly the entire five minutes while chasing choke-out finishes and keeping his foe uncomfortable.

But when the second round began, and he faced some adversity—in the form of a left hook that knocked him down and a series of brutal elbows that made sickening sounds as they drove his head into the canvas—he showed his real mettle.

The 27-year-old endured the torrent of punishment long enough for Grigoriou to compromise his own gas tank, then quickly seized the opportunity to lock in a triangle choke that prompted the stricken man to tap out moments later.

The official time was 1:55 of the second and the win was Kazama's sixth by submission among 11 total victories.

"That was a chance to use my BJJ skills," he said. "The opportunity came, and I was ready."

Eighth-ranked bantamweight Karol Rosa's strategy was evident from the start of her fight with 11th-ranked 135-pound contemporary Pannie Kianzad.

It was clearly about the kicks.

The 29-year-old Brazilian marched perpetually forward and used her legs like metronomes, gradually and violently strafing Kianzad's lead left leg with both roundhouse and interior shots to the calf on the way to a unanimous decision.

The leg was visibly reddened and swollen within just a couple minutes and Kianzad briefly tumbled to the mat without being touched, simply because she was backing away from more damage and buckled over her own left knee.

Her face wore the damage, too, because nearly every time Kianzad lunged forward to try to land punches without compromising her legs, she was rattled by short precise left hooks that opened a bloody gash on the bridge of her nose.

Rosa landed 21 leg kicks among her 48 strikes in the opening round and finished the 15 minutes with 148 total strikes, including 41 via leg kicks.

"I train on my ground game," she said, "but at the end of the day a little Muay Thai started working."

It's among the UFC's fan-friendlier elements.

Matches are typically made evenly, which, unlike in boxing, means there's no guarantee an undercard fighter with an unbeaten record is an almost prohibitive favorite to win.

In fact, it was only a 50-50 proposition on Saturday's prelim card, where previously unbeaten strawweight Talita Alencar lost nearly every moment of 15 minutes on the way to a shutout loss to a former Dana White's Contender Series rival, Stephanie Luciano.

It was a bit chalkier in the night's third fight, where Brazilian heavyweight Jhonata Diniz used a patient but powerfully methodical striking approach for two-plus rounds and escaped danger late after he was taken down by once-beaten foe Karl Williams.

Diaz survived to win a unanimous decision – earning two 29-28 nods and a third by 30-27 on the scorecards – and improved to both 8-0 as a pro and 2-0 with the promotion since his own DWCS win last September.

The defeat of Williams was the first time he'd gone the distance and just the second time he'd gone past the first round in a two-year career that had seen him fight with three "I was different promotions before debuting in the UFC in April.

"I was a little bit apprehensive because he was a grappler," Diniz said. "But we won the fight and that's what we came here to do."

It's a bit early to include her among the UFC's "it" fighters, but Brazilian strawweight Stephanie Luciano certainly earned herself some closer looks with a clear-cut three-round decision over Talita Alencar in Saturday's prelim opener.

The 24-year-old was noticeable for the almost clinical way in which she disposed of the previously unbeaten Alencar, with whom she'd fought to a draw on Dana White's Contender series last September.

But she was more memorable way she moved around the octagon, flitting lithely and wearing an almost constant smile that belied the violent nature of her work.

"We've prepared so much that the fighting isn't the bad part," she said. "I'm very happy to be here. This is what I am. This is what you're going to see."

All three judges were deadlocked at 28 in their first fight, but it was all Luciano across the board this time as she swept all three rounds on all three scorecards thanks to wide edges in significant strikes and overall strikes while defending nine of 10 takedown tries.

"Hey Brazil, we're here. We arrived," she said. "I wanted to be here and put on a show for you guys."

Main Card

Serghei Spivac def. Marcin Tybura by verbal submission (armbar), 1:44, Round 1

Chepe Mariscal def. Damon Jackson by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-26)

Danny Barlow def. Nikolay Veretennikov by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)

Chris Gutierrez def. Quang Le by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Yana Santos def. Chelsea Chandler by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Toshiomi Kazama def. Charalampos Grigoriou by submission (triangle choke), 1:55, Round 2

Preliminary Card

Karol Rosa def. Pannie Kianzad by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Jhonata Diniz def. Karl Williams by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Youssef Zalal def. Jarno Errens by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:52, Round 1

Stephanie Luciano def. Talita Alencar by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)