UFC 310 Results: Live Winners and Losers from the Full Card

UFC 310 rolled into Las Vegas on Saturday, bringing with it a stacked card and plenty to settle on the final pay-per-view of the year.

Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja was expected to have his hands full with impressive RIZIN alumni Kai Asakura, a debutant whose skills and raw power could have proved to be a challenge. The co-main pitted two unbeaten stars against each other in the shape of Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Garry, a five-round title eliminator to face welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.

Elsewhere, Alexander Volkov's four-fight win streak was on the line in a rematch against Cyril Gane, a heavyweight clash of technical strikers that has firecracker potential. Bryce Mitchell returned to face Kron Gracie on a main card that opened with an exciting clash between Nate Landwehr and Choi Doo-ho.

With that all in mind, let's get into the Winners and Losers from UFC's final pay-per-view card of 2024.

Alexandre Pantoja has developed into a phenomenal MMA fighter. There was so much hype behind Kai Asakura coming into his UFC debut; this guy knocked people out for fun in RIZIN and could be the organization's first champion from Asia.

The jump to the UFC isn't that simple, though.

Pantoja weathered the storm without breaking stride to firmly make the flyweight division his own. The Brazilian even took a trademark Asakura knee to the chops in the opening seconds without flinching. He immediately fired back with a strong straight, almost flooring Asakura before he had time to get over the excitement of seeing Bruce Buffer's suit in the flesh for the first time.

Pantoja never looked in real trouble. He landed 33 of his 53 attempted strikes and three of seven takedowns before locking in his only submission attempt. Asakura is going to be a fun addition to the UFC, but he needs to develop some functionality alongside the flashiness.

"This is the level, right here," Pantoja told Joe Rogan after the fight. Yep. The champion has cleared out everyone in front of him, so who is next?

We could be gearing up for a long reign.

Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry entered the co-main event with a combined 33-0 record. Most people had Shavkat outlined as a clear favorite.

Garry wasn't one of those people.

Granted, the Irishman lost a 48-47 unanimous decision. It was the correct result. But he did something no other fighter has ever done against the Shavkat wrecking ball: he didn't get finished. Garry narrowly lost the opening two rounds and then stepped up his game considerably down the stretch.

Much of this came down to his excellent leg kicks, which knocked Rakhmonov off balance and made him hesitant to go for the takedown. Garry is long, gangly and difficult to overpower. In round three he came within an inch of submitting the Kazakh from his back.

In that moment, Shavkat showed exactly why he's 19-0. The composure, the calmness when fighting the hands. A lesser fighter would have crumbled.

This was a win for both men, handing Shavkat a once postponed title shot against Belal Muhammad, and who knows, maybe Garry a shot at former gym-mate Leon Edwards in London.

One thing's for sure: Garry is no joke.

Sometimes the reaction of a corner says it all.

Cyril Gane's team did not expect his hand to be raised after a close rematch with Alexander Volkov. The opening two rounds were tight but there's no question Volk won the third with top control and landing 68 strikes to Gane's four.

We know both fighters are excellent on the feet, but it's clear Volkov came up with the idea of putting in work on the floor. His two kneepads give the game away. Gane looked more well-rounded than before, especially considering that sequences on the mat kickstarted his losses to Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou.

But, the Frenchman still showed plenty of weaknesses that won't have Jones or Aspinall too worried. Volkov can feel hard done by; he landed more than double Gane's successful strikes, more takedowns and applied his aggression well to nullify danger on the feet. There was even a spinning back fist for good measure.

UFC judges wield considerable power, though, and they punished Volkov at an extremely important moment of his career.

So much of Kron Gracie's TKO loss to Bryce Mitchell on a pay-per-view main card in 2024 made zero sense.

He's now 5-3 as a professional MMA fighter and without a win since 2019. He spent the entire fight trying to pull Mitchell down on top of him, desperately strapping himself to Thug Nasty like one of those seatbelts the American doesn't believe in.

This fight didn't make Bryce look any smarter, either.

He engaged with Gracie on the ground–the only way Kron would ever have a shot at winning–and came close to having his arm snapped in round two.

But Kron followed his oops-upside-your-head dance routine with Charles Jourdain by getting sparked out by a man who walked out to 'Cotton Eye Joe'. A finish that came seconds after Gracie pulled him down to the sound of boos.

None of it made sense. None of it helped the Gracie name. Why did Dana White make people pay for this fight? Why was it in this slot on an evening of stacked prelims? Is 'Kron' even a word? Please help.

Nate Landwehr's best strike of his loss against Doo Ho Choi might have been the overzealous high five he excitedly greeted his opponent within the opening round. The former M-1 champ got lit up like the Vegas Strip in Choi's best and most well-rounded performance in his 10 years with the UFC.

Choi put on an absolute clinic right from the start. His boxing opened the door as he immediately cracked Landwehr with a range of strikes, including a head-snapping lead uppercut that he slipped in with devastating speed. We then saw a brilliant sweep and some excellent work on the ground that gave Landwehr absolutely zero chance of getting back into the bout.

Arguably Choi's most impressive moment came in the final round. Landwehr wanted to make it dirty and tried to initiate a brawl. Choi stepped back, maintained his range and didn't get drawn in. Seconds later, he calmly took Landwehr down and locked in a crucifix beatdown that would end the fight.

The Korean Superboy is finally becoming a man.

Firstly, props to Anthony Smith for making it to the octagon for his fight with Dominick Reyes on Saturday night. His tearful walk to the cage pinpointed a man overcome with emotion after the sudden death of his coach and friend Scott Morton.

However, Smith looked completely off. He fought poorly in his defeat against Roman Dolidze in June, but this was different. It almost seemed like Smith was welcoming pain.

At the end of the first round, we saw Lionhart drop his hands and willingly eat multiple jabs. In the second, he held onto a failed single-leg takedown attempt until he was on the floor and eating brutal elbow after brutal elbow.

He had a chance to stand up and didn't bother. Referee Marc Goddard eventually stepped in after Reyes landed an incredible 72% of his 232 attempted strikes in another sharp performance after his win over Dustin Jacoby last time out.

"I don't give a f–k about the fight. [...] I don't know how many times I can do this without him," Smith said afterward, suggesting retirement looms without Morton. A sad end to a difficult career.

For Reyes, that's two big finishes after his horrific three-fight run of losses. The man who many believe beat Jon Jones could well be setting up for a title run. And what a storyline that would be.

You've got to feel for Themba Gorimbo. The late replacement for Nick Diaz was on the end of a brutal submission loss against Vicente Luque, who quite frighteningly, thinks he's only just heading into his fighting prime.

On that evidence, the Silent Assassin is completely correct.

It took just 52 seconds for Luque to hurt Gorimbo on the feet, lock in a rolling anaconda choke and then finish with the D'Arce.

"I am back to finish everybody," he told Joe Rogan.

I'm not here to argue. And Diaz will be glad he isn't either.

Where are my grappling purists? Rewatching Movsar Evloev's win over Aljamain Sterling I would imagine.

All three judges scored the bout 29-28 in Evloev's favor, extending his unbeaten run to 19. Aljo is undoubtedly the biggest scalp on his resume and the Russian should now be in real contention for a featherweight title shot.

Honestly, both fighters deserve some credit. This was a grueling battle, with Sterling opting to dive into the fire on multiple occasions by solely focusing on wrestling. He was holding his own until the last couple of minutes where a silly mistake let Movsar finish strongly.

Ray Longo called for "a big f—ing five minutes" from Sterling as we headed into the final round. It didn't happen, despite an uptick in aggressiveness. But Sterling showed enough to suggest he could be a contender at this weight.

Movsar moves up, remarkably, without a finish in his nine UFC wins.

I guess you could say he won the Battle and lost the snore (I'm sorry).

If that's the type of pun to make you sigh, then you're in the right place: Bryan Battle showed good pacing and a decent game plan to snuff Randy Brown out, but he followed it with a promo that had about as much wit and self-awareness as the opening line in this section.

"Who are you booing? I know all of these degenerates, all of these sick twisted degenerates in Vegas aren't booing The Butcher," he told the crowd.

They were booing a man who missed weight and relied on the clinch to halt Brown, whose wild swings looked like they would do some damage in the opening round.

Battle fought well and landed 60% of his 177 attempted strikes, deservedly taking rounds two and three, but he isn't going to win any fans like that. This felt like a fight where both men were right at their ceiling.

It started so well.

Chris Weidman cracked Eryk Anders with a left hand and took the opening round. The opportunity for his first back-to-back wins in the UFC since 2015 was right there.

Then, it happened again.

Weidman was completely overwhelmed in round two, the final image of this fight a sad sight for his fans; on his back, legs aloft, his light stubbed out with a couple of sharp prods from a resurgent Anders.

It's the third loss in four fights for the Long Island native who was completely outstruck and overwhelmed.

That should be it for the former middleweight champion. At 40 years old and with two wins in seven fights, it's time to say goodbye.