Shock! The unpopular champion fell, the new king is the “protégé” puncher. The Chinese successfully defended her title. What did UFC 292 look like?

The UFC returned this weekend with another numbered event, this time with the number 292 card. Viewers in Boston and on their television screens were treated to two title fights or one big return. What did the entire gala look like?

Early Prelims, Prelims

The UFC 292 gala didn’t wait too long for its first finish, but overall there were few fights on the Early Prelims and Prelims card. The very first round of the entire tournament delivered a submission to Karine Silva, who took Maryna Moroz to the guillotine with seconds left.

The next three bouts had to be decided by points judges. Natalia Silva, the victor of Tereza Bleda in her UFC debut, scored another valuable win when she defeated Andrea Lee by unanimous decision. The middleweight bout was dominated by Andre Petroski, who defeated Gerald Meerschaert on a split decision.

The second part of the appetizer before the main card was provided by the final two duels from The Ultimate Fighter show. The bantamweight title was won on points by Brad Katona, who outpointed Cody Gibson. It’s worth noting that he took care of a record as he won the show for the second time in his career. Five years ago, he dominated the featherweight division.

At lightweight, for a change, Kurt Holobaugh took Austin Hubbard to a second-round triangle choke. The first ever KO/TKO of the gala followed when Gregory Rodrigues destroyed Denis Tiuliulin with hard elbows on the ground.

🚨Early KO for Gregory Rodrigues with some nasty elbow shots!🚨 #UFC292 pic.twitter.com/fCffp9x4dm

— NoSmokeSport (@NoSmokeSport) August 20, 2023

The final bout before the main card offered the return of former champion Chris Weidman, who made his first appearance in the cage in over two years. In his last bout, he broke his leg badly. However, his return was not a triumphant one, as he was beaten unanimously on points by Brad Tavares.

The main card

Continuing the points harvest

The opening of the main card offered an attractive spectacle as the six and ten bantamweight contenders faced off. Marlon Vera and Pedro Munhoz handled the entire bout standing up and it was something to watch. The first round was extremely evenly matched, with Munhoz slightly more active, but Vera was tougher, more accurate, and looked better after landing his punches.

The second round looked statistically better for Munhoz, yet only one judge awarded it to him. The third round was then quite one-sided from Vera, who was hitting great combinations and gaining more and more advantage. Two scoring judges saw Vera win 30-27, one saw Vera win 29-28.

What followed was a duel between two typologically similar fighters. Both Da’Mon Blackshear and Mario Bautista have a habit of winning primarily on the submission, but they didn’t spend much time on the ground together. The first round could still be taken as even, however Bautista was closer to finishing his opponent when he held a guillotine for a long time, from which Blackshear escaped.

From the second round onwards, however, it was evident that Blackshear, who delivered four takedowns in the first five minutes, was tiring and Bautista began to dominate the fight, taking the second and third rounds for himself without much trouble and deservedly winning on points.

The Irish sensation destroyed the veteran

Conor McGregor’s second. That’s how Ian Machado Garry is nicknamed. Great self-confidence, brashness, almost to the point of disrespect for others, a gaping mouth and a fantastic attitude. At UFC 292, however, he faced veteran Neil Magny.

Garry went into the fight with a 12-0 record. While the Irishman had 12 career fights, Magny had won 21 fights in the UFC alone and had a career record of 28-10 overall. Still, the 25-year-old Machado was taken as the favorite.

Right from the start, it showed why. After all, Garry was brutally dismantling his opponent Magny, especially the American’s left leg. The Irishman played with his opponent like a cat with a mouse. Magny saw it as his only chance to lure his rival to the ground, but he wasn’t going there.

Three rounds standing, three rounds of dominance. Garry defeated the welterweight eleven. Magny’s will and pride seemed to save him from being finished. He didn’t want to be finished by a “young brat”.

After his thirteenth career win, Garry asked for Stephen Thompson, the UFC’s number seven welterweight. He said he wanted to show him that he was the best stand-up fighter in the world and that there was a new generation.

Weili Zhang destroyed her opponent with the difference in class

Weili Zhang became the UFC strawweight champion again late last year when she took the title from Carla Esparza. She defended against Brazilian slugger Amanda Lemos at UFC 292.

The Chinese fighter was a big favourite, but given that the Brazilian is really great in the stand-up department and can shut down her opponents in the first round, it was mostly unpredictable.

But then the match came and it offered a completely one-sided spectacle. Zhang dominated all five rounds, allowing her opponent to do mostly nothing, controlling the vast majority of the fight on the ground and giving Lemos a good bullying session.

Six takedowns delivered, nearly 15 minutes of ground control and 296 strikes, 163 of which were significant and one of which led to a knockdown. The numbers clearly demonstrate the sheer dominance of Zhang. Lemos scored just 21 punches in the entire five rounds.

The Chinese wanted to end the fight, but the Brazilian had a lot to endure and didn’t give in. Still, she clearly lost on points and Zhang scored a successful defense.

Shock! The unpopular champion falls

The main event catered to two fighters who are constantly under fire from critics. Aljamain Sterling was featured as arguably the most underrated champion in UFC history, however, also arguably the best bantamweight of all time, Sean O’Malley for a change has been criticized for some sort of favoritism from the UFC.

However, Sterling has beaten stars like Peter Yan and Henry Cejudo, and Yan controversially beat O’Malley on points, giving him a title shot.

Sterling was a big favorite, and was expected to be able to put the fight away with his experience. He showed in the first round that this could be the case. It wasn’t very attractive, it was more of a tactical chess match, but the champion had a slight advantage.

The second round showed why caution pays off. Sterling missed his opponent’s chin with a punch on one attempted attack and O’Malley made no mistake on the counter and sent the champion down. There he dealt him more punches and it was all over.

O’Malley is the new champion and he made a big splash. He didn’t get many chances. This is good news for the UFC as well, as the new bantamweight king is very popular and if he continues to finish opponents like this, we have a lot to look forward to.

SEAN OMALLEY TKO A STERLING 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/XwKEgEOvi6

— Carlos Lamb (@CarlosLamb_) August 20, 2023

Source: UFC, Tapology