The Octagon headed to the Far East final weekend because the Chinese language island of Macau performed host to a UFC Battle Night time card that featured a bunch of Chinese language preventing expertise, with their greatest male star, Tune Yadong, topping the invoice.
Listed below are our energy rankings for the principle card winners at UFC Battle Night time: Tune vs Figueiredo.
UFC Macau Energy Rankings
1. Tune Yadong
The person on the prime of the combat card finally ends up on the prime of our Energy Rankings listing. Tune Yadong carried the burden of a nation on his shoulders because the followers desperately hoped that he declare the primary, and solely, Chinese language win of the evening. He additionally knew he wanted to make an announcement to drive himself into the title image at 135 kilos. The strain was on, and he couldn’t afford to fluff his traces.
Fortunately for Tune, and for the Chinese language followers in attendance, he did fairly the alternative. He delivered an impressive efficiency to submit former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo within the second spherical.
It places Tune proper within the combine for a title shot, and it gave the followers in Macau an actual “I used to be there” second as he almost took the roof off the Galaxy Enviornment together with his show-stealing victory.
2. Rodrigo Vera
Rodrigo Vera’s hopes of getting within the UFC appeared lifeless within the water when he did not make the reduce for The Final Fighter. However he stayed in Vegas, stayed prepared, then received his probability. And boy did he take it.
Vera stepped in on quick discover to face Zhu Kangjie, and wanted lower than two minutes to knock out the Chinese language prospect because the Peruvian bantamweight made an immediate influence. Now he’s within the UFC, it’ll be actually enjoyable to see how he progresses in a really thrilling bantamweight division.
3. Kai Asakura
Kai Asakura is again at bantamweight, and again to his outdated self. The Japanese famous person kicked off his UFC profession with two fights at flyweight, each of which resulted in defeat. However on Saturday, he dropped down a stage in opponent, and moved up a weight class, and received the end result he desperately wanted.
Positive, Cameron Smotherman isn’t a former world champion like Alexandre Pantoja, or a former title challenger like Tim Elliott, however if you face an opponent who hasn’t fought on the similar stage as you, you’ll want to reveal that in your efficiency, and Asakura did precisely that. He demolished Smotherman in a single minute, 50 seconds to get his first UFC win.
Kai Asakura at flyweight was depleted and compromised. Kai Asakura at bantamweight is a nasty, dangerous man. He’s going to be loads of enjoyable to look at at 135 shifting ahead.
4. Alonzo Menifield
Alonzo Menifield has at all times had a fame as a heavy-handed mild heavyweight, however he hadn’t truly scored a knockout win since October 2022. That stat is within the trash now, nonetheless, because of Menifield’s thrilling first-round TKO of Chinese language knockout artist Zhang Mingyang.
Given Zhang’s transparently predictable preventing technique – stroll ahead, throw large pictures – many questioned if Menifield may flip to his wrestling and floor sport to regulate Zhang. However “Atomic” wasn’t right here to pull issues out.
As an alternative, Menifield bit down on his mouthpiece and went toe-to-toe with “The Mountain Tiger”. He took a number of large pictures alongside the best way, however Menifield fought by way of the hearth to finally overwhelm Zhang to attain the first-round end in a bout that noticed each males handed $100,000 Battle of the Night time bonuses.
With an enormous win, a six-figure payday, and his rating spot efficiently defended, Menifield can now set his sights on the contenders forward of him within the mild heavyweight rankings. And if he continues to belief his energy in MMA gloves, he’s going to be a tough man to take care of.
5. Angela Hill
A matchup that I had circled as a sleeper for Battle of the Night time delivered a very enjoyable scrap as UFC vet Angela Hill welcomed former ONE Championship strawweight champion Xiong Jingnan to the UFC.
Xiong fought comparatively properly, however Hill was excellent. “Overkill” appeared the very best we’ve seen from her in years as she outstruck and outworked the normally relentless Xiong, irritating her with off-rhythm strikes, and hurting her to the physique as she blended up her putting sport fantastically.
It was a superb all-around efficiency that in all probability gained’t get the shine it deserves from the broader UFC fanbase, as not everyone seems to be conscious of how good Xiong could be. However Hill deserves all of the credit score for that win.
It was studying combat for Xiong, who will bounce again to raised performances sooner or later, however Saturday was Hill’s evening, as she claimed the nineteenth win of her profession.
