Winners and Losers From UFC Fight Night 248, Results

Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo were champions and pound-for-pound fixtures bridging 2020 into 2021 – having won their titles at bantamweight and flyweight just seven days apart during the UFC's COVID-addled run on "Fight Island" in Abu Dhabi.

They share turf at 135 pounds these days, though, which meant their Fight Night matchup at Galaxy Arena in China's seaside Macau region was especially important as the veterans, 31 and 36, respectively, aimed to stay within striking range of another shot.

The B/R combat team was in position at 3 a.m. ET (4 p.m. in Macau) to take in all the action from the 13-bout card and produced a real-time definitive list of the show's winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments section.

Let's face it. It was pretty easy to sleep on Petr Yan.

The 31-year-old Russian was a former champion at bantamweight and surely the author of some memorable victories, but he'd lost three of four and four of six as other names began seizing the narrative in a tumultuous environment at 135 pounds.

Based on his effort in Saturday's main event, though, the fighter known as "No Mercy" is in no mood to definitively cede his status anytime soon.

Yan turned the clock back to vintage against Deiveson Figueiredo in a matchup of the division's veteran No. 3 and 5 contenders, dominating the fight in his standup wheelhouse and more than holding his own on the mat on the way to a unanimous decision victory.

It was an instant return to title contention for the ex-champion, who was shut out across five rounds by then-future claimant Merab Dvalishvili on a Fight Night show in March 2023.

Yan also lost to the two men who held the belt prior to Dvalishvili, dropping a split decision to Sean O'Malley at UFC 280 in October 2022 and losing twice – once by DQ and once by split decision to Aljamain Sterling. He'd had some issues with UFC judging in the past, but was given all five rounds this time on all three scorecards, matching the B/R card at 50-45.

"I felt that I led in the fight," he said.

The numbers backed him up given the advantages he'd established in head strikes (79-26), leg kicks (22-7) and significant strikes (121-65).

And once the win was made official, Dvalishvili was back on his mind.

"Merab told Deiveson Figueiredo he was the No. 1 contender," Yan said. "What do you say now when I beat the No. 1 contender in my division? I want a rematch. Let's go."

Tabatha Ricci saw her target and knew what was needed. But sometimes the gap between knowing and doing is too vast – particularly against a taller, longer opponent.

Frenetically active but facing significant disadvantages in height and reach, the 29-year-old Brazilian was never able to generate consistent offense and found herself on the short end (no pun intended) of a competitive but one-sided decision against Yan Xiaonan.

It was a matchup of ranked strawweights that included No. 2 Xiaonan, who'd last appeared in a title-fight loss to Zhang Weili at UFC 300 in April; and Ricci, who was ranked No. 10 and had won two in a row and six of eight since arriving in 2021.

Xiaonan stood four inches taller at 5'5" and used her 63-inch reach to spear Ricci with hard left jabs and punishing right crosses nearly every time she approached, only occasionally allowing her to get within a range that'd allow for any significant offense.

Ricci was wobbled by a hard right hand in the second and immediately went for a takedown and briefly got to the Chinese woman's back, but she was unable to maintain the position and was soon back to a familiarly frustrated position on her feet.

At the end, she was on the wrong side of a 78-15 margin in significant strikes and was out-landed by at least 16 in each round. All three judges scored it 30-27 for Xiaonan, who called for a second go-round with Weili, who was seated at cage-side.

"My coaches gave me the strategy (against Ricci) and they are the best," she said. "I want a rematch and I want to get the belt back."

Sometimes, the nicknames ring particularly true.

Forty-year-old Muslim Salikhov is labeled as the "King of Kung Fu" and has frequently shown a fondness for ending fights with particularly exotic maneuvers.

He was clearly in that mindset again on Saturday's main card against local favorite Song Kenan and delivered with a spinning wheel kick KO that'll surely make the list of the year's best.

"Every one of my kicks is dangerous. Every one of my punches is dangerous," Salikhov said as he watched a replay on the arena's scoreboard screen. "This is my favorite kick. That's beautiful. I'm very happy to get a win like that."

It came at 3:49 of the opening round against Kenan, who was standing straight in front of Salikhov when the Russian spun on his left leg and connected with his right foot on the left side of Kenan's face. The Chinese fighter fell instantly to the canvas and took another quick ground strike before referee Mark Craig stepped in.

It's his eighth win in 12 UFC fights and 21st in his 26 as a pro.

"I always have this gift in my pocket but never expect that I will finish the fight with it," Salikhov said. "I'm still good. This is just the beginning."

Here's a tip for the UFC experts out there:

Just when you think you know, you don't know.

Chinese favorite Wang Cong strutted to the cage as the card's biggest favorite and had spent a week downplaying the level of threat presented by sub-.500 opponent Gabriella Fernandes.

But once the fists and kicks started flying, the bravado didn't matter.

Though Cong controlled distance and threw more shots in the first round-plus, she didn't do anything to dissuade her Brazilian opponent from staying in the fight. And the persistence paid off midway through the second when Fernandes landed a head kick that staggered Cong and followed soon after with a left hand that dropped the favorite to the mat.

She quickly seized the stricken woman's neck with her right arm and locked in the rear-naked choke that put Cong to sleep and forced the hand of referee Marc Goddard at 3:49.

It was Fernandes' 10th win in 13 pro fights and leveled her UFC record at 2-2, while Cong fell from the ranks of the unbeaten and is now 6-1 as a pro and 1-1 in the company.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is mixed martial arts. And you can't count a person out," analyst Laura Sanko said. "This is a sport that is played on a razor's edge and you cannot sleep on an opponent."

Fernandes was reduced to tears in her post-fight chat, discussing the recent deaths of her father and sister and her team's refusal to allow her to pull out of the fight.

"I came here as an underdog," she said. "I came all the way to China and look at me now."

Given a 77 percent finish rate between them, it seemed fireworks were a foregone conclusion in the main-card matchup of ranked light heavyweights Volkan Oezdemir and Carlos Ulberg.

So when they never arrived, it's easy to understand why their fight felt like a dud.

The No. 8 and No. 10 contenders at 205 pounds, respectively, engaged in 15 minutes of careful, tactical combat – each trying hard to avoid the other's weapons – before the streaking Ulberg emerged with a clear and deserved unanimous decision.

Two judges awarded Ulberg all three rounds and the other saw him a winner in two of three, giving him the 29-28 scorecard that matched B/R's.

Oezdemir was busier and more aggressive in the opening five minutes though his attack was occasionally halted by one of Ulberg's precise counter shots. The New Zealander stepped up his own offense in the final two rounds, however, faring well on his feet and staying off the floor when his opponent mixed in an occasional takedown attempt.

It was a seventh straight octagonal win for Ulberg since he debuted with a loss to Kennedy Nzechukwu at UFC 259.

"Volkan is an experienced fighter and he's obviously been in there with the best," Ulberg said of Oezdemir, who was stopped by Daniel Cormier in a title try at UFC 220 in 2018.

"You get caught in the mid-range with that guy and he'll knock anyone out. So the game plan was to make him miss and make him pay."

Upon exiting the locker room, Zhang Mingyang drew the loudest and most sustained pop from the typically muted crowd at Galaxy Arena. And he didn't take long to justify their noise.

The 26-year-old light heavyweight arrived having scored each of his 17 wins by first-round stoppage and the streak continued after a brief encounter with American export Ozzy Diaz, who lasted less than half a round before running into a left elbow that led to a TKO finish at 2:25.

The "Mountain Tiger" had appeared on the Road to UFC competition and debuted with the promotion with a quick stoppage of Brendson Ribeiro at UFC 299 in February.

And just as he did then, the Chinese slugger called for bigger things, quickly.

"I want a top-15 fight. I want a title fight," he said. "I want a money fight."

Mingyang and Diaz had exchanged shots through the first two minutes before the local hero stepped in with a left elbow that landed flush on Diaz's face and sent him to the floor. Mingyang swooped in with a volley of ground shots and referee Kevin Sataki intervened as Diaz gave up his back and offered no resistance.

"He vaporized him," analyst Laura Sanko said. "That's the way you do it."

None of Mingyang's 18 wins – 12 by KO, six by submission – have gone as far as four minutes, and he's failed to exit the first round in three of six losses, too. In fact, only one of his 24 fights has gone to the scorecards after three rounds.

DongHun Choi is certainly a long way from championships and high-end stardom.

And chances are he'll never achieve either.

But if performance in a big moment and personality in the aftermath are indicative of long-term success, do yourself a favor and keep his name filed away somewhere.

The 25-year-old flyweight danced his way to the cage for his Road to UFC title match with Kiru Sahota, then announced his presence with authority via a highlight-reel three-punch combination that sent Sahota face first to the floor.

"I've won the tournament," Choi said. "I cannot express into words what I feel right now."

A winner in eight straight bouts before Saturday, Choi was particularly entertaining thanks to a wide-swinging style that made a quick finish – for either him or his opponent – seem inevitable.

It was, coming at 2:36 of the first round when his right-left-right volley landed flush and handed Sahota just his third loss in 15 fights.

"This is exactly how I trained and prepared," Choi said. "I was looking for a KO in the first round."

The prelim card wrapped up with bantamweight SuYoung You, who earned the final Road to UFC contract with a unanimous decision defeat of Baergeng Jieleyisi in their finale.

Two judges scored all three rounds for You while a third had it 29-28 in his favor.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Chinese strawweight Shi Ming was predictably thrilled after landing the head kick that felled opponent Feng Xiaocan in their Road to UFC strawweight title match and earning a contract to fight in the world's highest-profile MMA organization.

But given the severity of the blow, which left Xiaocan semi-conscious in the center of the mat and in need of a stretcher that'd transport her to a local hospital, it was a muted celebration.

The 30-year-old Ming stood stoically along the fence as medical personnel tended to Xiaocan, who laid nearly motionless for several minutes but eventually began talking to the caregivers as they immobilized her neck and prepared her to exit the cage.

The end came at 46 seconds of the third round when Ming's right leg crashed into the left side of Xiaocan's head. Ming pounced and delivered four ground strikes before referee Kevin Sataki dove in and rolled her away from the defenseless Xiaocan.

It was a fascinating effort from Ming, who's a licensed physician in China and said her parents have no idea she competes in professional sports.

"I'm worried about my opponent. I hope she's OK," she said. "There have been many fights where I haven't been aggressive enough. But many times I've shown I have knockout power."

The future of the flyweight division may be in good hands.

Though the prelim bout between 125-pounders Lone'er Kavanagh and Jose Ochoa was the octagonal debut for both men, the 20-somethings looked the part of seasoned, skilled veterans across a tactical 15 minutes from which Kavanagh emerged with a decision victory.

Each man had arrived with a pristine 7-0 record.

Two judges saw it 29-28 for the 25-year-old Englishman and the third gave him a clean sweep of three rounds in which he was the faster and sharper striker, landing intermittently hard shots to Ochoa's jaw and chewing up his right leg with hard kicks.

Kavanagh dropped his foe with a quick counter right hand early in Round 2 but had to deal with adversity later in the session when Ochoa connected with a hard strike that prompted Kavanagh to make a try for a takedown.

Ochoa seized the position and chased a submission by rear-naked choke but Kavanagh was able to survive the final seconds until the round's end.

Kavanagh landed the most telling blow of the third round, a left counter that sent the 23-year-old Ochoa skidding across the mat. He wound up with a narrow 51-50 edge in significant strikes and was more precise with his attempts, landing 40 percent to Ochoa's 31.

Analyst Laura Sanko labeled Kavanagh as one of the 10 best prospects to ever appear on Dana White's Contender Series, from which he graduated with a one-round win in August. Her colleague, John Gooden, went a step further about both men, saying "We're looking at the young guns that are going to prop up that division for years to come."

The memorable finish to Max Holloway's "BMF" win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, in which the Hawaiian pointed to the floor and challenged his foe to a center-cage slugfest down the stretch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, will go down as one of the year's best.

And it's clear fighters on the other side of the world were watching.

Chinese fan favorite Xiao Long emulated Holloway several times across a three-round prelim matchup with Vietnam-based rival Quang Le, pointing to the floor repeatedly and engaging in high-output violence inside the black line that separates the middle section of the octagon from the fence-side perimeter.

It wound up paying dividends in the final round when Long dropped Le with a hard left-right combination, then followed with a pair of unfettered hammer fists to draw an intervention from referee Mike Beltran and an official end to the fight at 1:28.

The super-intense winner celebrated with an immediate spring to the top of the fence and proceeded to pound on its padded frame while drinking in the glee of his supporters.

"That's an electric performance from Xiao Long," blow-by-blow man John Gooden said, "as he announces himself in the bantamweight division."

It's the first time in Macau in a decade and Saturday's early card will have to go a ways to match the memories created at The Venetian Macau Resort Hotel in 2014.

The 10-bout Fight Night show on August 23 that year was notable for the star power it included, headlined by then-future middleweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping, who defeated Vietnamese foe Cung Le by fourth-round TKO in the main event.

Bisping, then 35, was submitted by Luke Rockhold in his subsequent fight three months later but followed with a late-career renaissance that included a first-round TKO in a rematch with Rockhold at UFC 199 that made him the promotion's champion at 185 pounds.

Another future champion, welterweight Tyron Woodley, was in the co-main that night and picked up a first-round TKO win over Dong Hyun Kim.

The win kicked off what became a seven-fight unbeaten streak for Woodley that included a defeat of Robbie Lawler to win the 170-pound title at UFC 201 and four defenses before he was beaten by Kamaru Usman at UFC 235.

The show also marked the debut of one of the sport's highest-profile athletes, Colby Covington, then 26, who arrived with five wins across four smaller promotions and got off to a strong octagonal start with a first-round TKO of Anying Wang in the night's third fight.

Covington has made 15 subsequent appearances with the UFC and challenged unsuccessfully for the welterweight title three times. He'll return next month in Florida to headline a Fight Night show with ninth-ranked 170-pounder Joaquin Buckley.

Main Card

Petr Yan def. Deiveson Figueiredo by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)

Yan Xiaonan def. Tabatha Ricci by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Muslim Salikhov def. Song Kenan by KO (spinning wheel kick), 3:49, Round 1

Gabriella Fernandes def. Wang Cong by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:49, Round 2

Carlos Ulberg def. Volkan Oezdemir by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Zhang Mingyang def. Ozzy Diaz by KO (elbow), 2:25, Round 1

Preliminary Card

SuYoung You def. Baergeng Jieleyisi by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

DongHun Choi def. Kiru Sahota by KO (punches), 2:36, Round 1

Shi Ming def. Feng Xiaocan by KO (head kick), 0:46, Round 3

Carlos Hernandez def. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Lone'er Kavanagh def. Jose Ochoa by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Xiao Long def. Quang Le by KO (punches), 1:28, Round 3

Nikolas Motta def. Maheshate by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)