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UFC Mexico just wrapped and overall, it was a solid card with plenty of highlights, some good, some not. Some of the night’s more interesting situations include: a fight cancellation, a rolled ankle during the announcements, questionable judging and a few upsets (shoutout to Raoni Barcelos). One thing is certain, elevation certainly caught a few of these athletes off guard. Let’s get into the fights that really captured our attention.
UFC Mexico main event
The Battle of Brandons saw the underdog take the prize via split decision. Going in, Moreno was a -300 favorite at the start of the bout. The two started slow, with nearly two minutes going by with only a leg kick landing and Herb Dean warning them to pick up the pace—and there were a few moments where he warned them or intervened.
The second round was where the action picked up considerably, and despite a clearly injured left foot, Royval continued throwing kicks with it, and he wasn’t pulling back in any capacity. Full force kicks with an foot that continued to swell as the fight wore on. It was kind of gnarly and makes me appreciate this hard-nosed guy a lot more.
By round four, it was obvious that Moreno was slowing down, his endless cardio seeming to hit a wall. There were long stretches where he allowed Royval to tee off on him as he tucked his chin and prepared for countering—which he did a lot. Royval continued to improve and looked the fresher, stronger fighter as the contest wore on.
When the score cards were read, it didn’t immediately sink in to him that he’d won, but once it did, Brandon Royval had a great callout of Alexandre Pantoja. UFC should award a $5K bonus for Callout of the Night. Give these boys and girls a reason to up their mic skills. It wasn’t what I’d call a great fight, but it wasn’t bad either. Just somewhere in between.
UFC Mexico co-main event
The co-main event was an action-packed brawl that saw Brian Ortega nearly finished in round one (we’ve never seen that before, right?!), but he had already recovered sufficiently in round two to start mounting serious offense. By round three, he was comfortably in control and just beat the stuffing out of Yair pretty much non-stop.
By the time he secured the arm triangle, it was already a wrap. Rodriguez didn’t have an answer for Ortega’s grappling or smothering top pressure. He couldn’t stop the takedowns and he couldn’t extricate himself from the trouble Brian was serving up. It was a great comeback from a guy known for making great comebacks. Did I mention he rolled his ankle during the announcements? Because he did.
Other notable moments from UFC Mexico
Yazmin Juaregi is the poster girl for “There’s levels to this” after dominating Sam Hughes for the majority of their contest. Hughes was slower, less powerful and seemed incapable of establishing a rhythm. Juaregi looks like she trains in a boxing gym because her striking is beautiful. Her footwork, as well. The future looks very bright for her.
Daniel Zellhuber once again put on a great performance against a very game Francisco Prado. Prado took some heavy damage early and continued getting piled on over the course of the fight, but to his credit, he landed some big bombs and hung in there until the end. Was he ever in a position to win this fight? Not from where I’m sitting, but he put on a gutsy performance, and sometimes that’s the difference-maker in creating and maintaining a fanbase.
There was also a fight cancellation, too. Right as the main card was starting, Brendan Fitzgerald must have drawn the short straw because he was left to explain on the broadcast that the Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios fight was cancelled. The reason given was because Raul had fallen ill and couldn’t compete. The fight will now take place on next week’s UFC Vegas 87 card at a likely catchweight (according to Dana White).
One last fight deserves its flowers and that’s the one featuring Raoni Barcelos and Cristian Quinonez. Quinonez looked good early but Barcelos started landing some power bombs and it wouldn’t be long before he’d turned the fight around. In the third, he was able to get Cristian down and it was just a matter of seconds before he sunk in the rear naked choke, eliciting the tap. Let’s take a look at the official results:
UFC Mexico main card
- – Brandon Royval def. Brandon Moreno via split decision (48-47, 49-46, 47-48): Flyweight
- – Brian Ortega def. Yair Rodriguez via submission (arm triangle) at :58 of round 3: Featherweight
- – Daniel Zellhuber def. Francisco Prado by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2): Lightweight
- – Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios: Bantamweight (cancelled due to Rosas Jr. illness)
- – Yazmin Jauregui def. Sam Hughes by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Strawweight
- – Manuel Torres def. Chris Duncan by submission (RNC) at 1:46 of round 1: Lightweight
UFC Mexico Prelims
- – Raoni Barcelos def. Cristian Quiñonez by submission (RNC) at 2:04 of round 3: Bantamweight
- – Jesus Aguilar def. Mateus Mendonça by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Flyweight
- – Edgar Cháirez def. Daniel Lacerda by submission (Triangle) at of round 1: Flyweight
- – Fares Ziam def. Claudio Puelles by split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29): Lightweight
- – Ronaldo Rodríguez def. Denys Bondar by submission (RNC) at 4:59 of round 2: Flyweight
- – Felipe dos Santos def. Victor Altamirano by split decision (29-28 x2, 27-30): Flyweight
- – Muhammad Naimov def. Erik Silva by TKO at :44 of round 1: Featherweight
UFC Mexico bonuses
FOTN: Daniel Zellhuber vs. Francisco Prado
POTN: Brian Ortega and Manuel Torres
Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!