UFC Vegas 119 went down last night (Sat., June 20, 2026) inside the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Manel Kape deliver a nice comeback knockout win over his longtime foe, Kyoji Horiguchi (see it again here). In the co-main event of the evening, Navajo Stirling secured a huge technicaal knockout (TKO) win of his own over Ion Cutelaba.
Biggest Winner: Manel Kape
Kape has punched his ticket to a title shot after pulling off a comeback win over his longtime foe, Horiguchi, in “Sin City.“ It was
a high-paced matchup that saw Horiguchi get the best of Kape slightly in the first two frames before ”Starboy” unleashed a powerful strike and ground-and-pound to get revenge on the man that beat him nine years ago. Now, all Kape has to do is sit back and wait to see if Joshua Van has to rematch against Alexandre Pantoja or if Kape gets to jump ahead of the Brazilian bomber.
Runner Up: Murtazali Magomedov and Navajo Stirling
Magomedov made a great impression in his UFC debut by submitting Melsik Baghdasaryan in the very first round with the rare twister submission. In the process, he locked down a nice $100,000 performance of the night award, all while putting the Featherweight division on notice. He improves to 11-0 as a pro, (1-0 UFC) and keeps his 100-percent finish rate intact. As for Stirling, he passed perhaps the biggest test of his young career by stopping the ever-tough Cutelaba in the second round. He improves his record to 10-0 and is now 5-0 inside the Octagon since making his debut out of the Contender Series back in 2024. He is off to a great start and could be in the Top 15 sooner, rather than later, if he keeps this up.
Biggest Loser: Hyder Amil, Michael Aswell and Leon Shahbazyan
Both Amil and Aswell needed a big win, or at least a great performance in defeat, if they wanted any chance of holding on to their spot on the bloated UFC roster, and both men went home losers. Amil was submited by Christian Rodriguez in the very first round, giving him his third straight loss. As for Aswell, he lost a unanimous decision to Gaston Bolanos, giving him his second straight loss. He is just 1-3 since making the jump into the world-famous Octagon, and that simply isn’t good enough. If they don’t get cut after their latest defeats, then they will be going into their next (and perhaps final) UFC fight with immense pressure knowing that one more defeat will send them packing. As for Shahbazyan, his UFC debut went as bad as it could have possibly went after he was stopped by fellow debutant, Levan Chokheli, who knocked him out in the first 23 seconds of the fight. That is not the first impression he wanted to make on the biggest MMA stage of them all, so now he has a ton of pressure to deliver a win in his next bout or face exile from the Octagon before he picks up any steam.
For more UFC Vegas 119 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
