The UFC returned to their residence base of the Meta APEX for a UFC Battle Evening card that had main implications for the highest of the welterweight division, as former champion Belal Muhammad regarded to defend his top-five rating towards rising Brazilian contender Gabriel Bonfim.
Listed here are our energy rankings for the primary card winners at UFC Battle Evening: Muhammad vs Bonfim.
UFC Vegas 118 Energy Rankings
1. Gabriel Bonfim
On Saturday evening, Brazil’s Bonfim confronted a serious step up at school as he took on the most important problem of his MMA profession. By the top of the evening it was clear that he had handed that take a look at with flying colours.
Bonfim comprehensively outpointed former undisputed champion Belal Muhammad to attain a shutout victory on the scorecards, incomes scores of 50-45 throughout the board. It implies that the Brazilian is now proper within the combine on the high of the UFC welterweight division, and his callout of former champion Jack Della Maddalena was completely pitched.
Bonfim is now doubtless a part of the welterweight elite, and another win – probably towards Della Maddalena – may probably see him in a title eliminator by this time subsequent 12 months, or earlier.
2. Iwo Baraniewski
Polish ending machine Iwo Baraniewski added one other sufferer to his rising record on Saturday evening when he stopped Australian knockout artist Junior Tafa within the first spherical of their gentle heavyweight matchup.
Baraniewski had blown the doorways off his first two opponents within the UFC as he demolished Ibo Aslan and Austen Lane, each within the first spherical as he showcased his thunderous punch energy in MMA gloves. That first-round-finish system continued towards Tafa, although he combined up his weapons to make the breakthrough. His use of chopping leg kicks proved essential as he took Tafa off his ft, then he returned to his heavy-hands to complete the job with some nasty floor and pound.
Baraniewski’s first-round end of Tafa noticed him go 3-0 within the UFC, with all three wins coming by means of knockout. Not dangerous for a former judoka…
3. Brendan Allen
Brendan Allen has been in and across the middleweight high 10 for a very good whereas now, and he needs to make use of his beef with Sean Strickland to take him all the best way to the undisputed 185-pound title.
Allen at the moment sits fourth within the official middleweight rankings, simply out of attain of a title shot. However he hopes that his rivalry with Strickland will see him leapfrog the likes of former champion Dricus Du Plessis and French contender Nassourdine Imavov.
Sadly for Allen, his determination win over the unranked Edmen Shahbazyan is unlikely to see him advance previous that pair within the rankings, so it’s doubtless he’ll should beat another opponent earlier than a title shot emerges. However make no mistake, Allen’s glorious kind – he’s now on a three-fight win streak – means he’s getting nearer to his final purpose.
4. Bryce Mitchell
After a 2025 the place extra was written about Bryce Mitchell away from the cage than inside it, the Arkansas featherweight returned to motion in Las Vegas and claimed a last-gasp submission victory over late alternative Santiago Luna.
Luna put up a very good combat, however Mitchell’s top-drawer floor recreation finally noticed him declare victory as he locked up an arm-triangle to power the end with simply eight seconds left on the clock.
After beforehand alternating wins and losses via six bouts over three years, Mitchell isn’t able to problem the division’s greatest. However his victory on Saturday gave him back-to-back wins for the primary time since March 2022, and put him again in place to probably problem somebody with a quantity subsequent to their identify later within the 12 months.
5. Tom Nolan
Australia’s “Large Practice” continued rolling on Saturday as Tom Nolan claimed a unanimous determination win over his hardest opponent but.
Nolan confronted off towards France’s Fares Ziam, who arrived in Vegas driving a six-fight win streak, together with a vicious TKO end of Nazim Sadykov in his final look. However in a closely-contested battle between two rising skills, Nolan did sufficient to earn the nod from all three judges, who every scored the bout 29-28.
The win gave Nolan his fifth straight win within the UFC, and confirmed that the six-foot-three Aussie is a very tough proposition at 155 kilos.
