Last night (Sat., July 25, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for UFC Abu Dhabi. In the main event, former 205-pound champion Magomed Ankalaev aimed to return to the win column by taking out “The Hitman,” Uzbekistan’s premier knockout artist Bogdan Guskov. In the co-main, former Flyweight title challenger Steve Erceg looked to take another step closer to a title shot by handing surging Ramazan Temirov his first UFC loss.
Even with some late cancellations, the card still featured several quality prospects, meaning fight fans had plenty of reason to tune in from start to finish.
Let’s take a closer look at the best performances and highlight finishes of the evening:
Still Big Ank
After Ankalaev’s shocking loss to Alex Pereira last year, the Russian former champion reportedly doubled down on his nutrition, reorganized his training camp, and left no stone unturned. After nearly a year away from the Octagon, “Big Ank” returned … exactly the same as he left.
Ankalaev is an unquestionable talent with excellent skills. He’s also fairly incapable of upping the output even when faced with an opponent who does not deserve to be in the cage with him. Guskov did absolutely nothing for five rounds, and Ankalaev was content to poke at him with kicks for 15 unending minutes. When he finally started wrestling in the fourth, he immediately found better success against a (somehow) exhausted opponent. Eventually, he got the finish, but even the stoppage sequence lacked half the intensity of a single Temirov right hand.
A win is a win, but this isn’t the kind of victory that leaves anyone excited for the next Ankalaev appearance.
Temirov Flatlines Erceg
It’s not every day you see a 5’4” Flyweight with tremendous knockout power.
Ramazan Temirov has an incredibly irritating style (for his opponents). The shorter man explodes wildly in every exchange, swinging absolutely everything into his punches. Theoretically, a taller man with sharp boxing like Erceg should be able to pick off those looping swings with long, straight punches and let Temirov run into counters, amplifying the impact with his own forward charges.
It’s a lot easier said than done! Temirov is so fast that any small error in timing resulted in Erceg getting cracked with home run swings. To land his counters, Erceg had to be perfect with his timing, whereas Temirov could just throw. Temirov’s aggressive swings also made backing away from exchanges a dangerous game, as Erceg didn’t want to be caught leaning backwards at the end of a swing.
Erceg tried to counter with pressure of his own. The problem with being the taller man moving forward is that it negates many of the advantages. Erceg had a couple nice moments using his height in the clinch, but otherwise, he was just giving Temirov the pocket without making the Uzbek standout work for it.
The Flyweight fireplug didn’t even need his wrestling in this fight — the right hands and spin kicks were enough. Late in the first, he clipped Erceg with a right directly on the point of the chin, rocking the Australian. Once that happened, the floodgates opened, and Temirov landed about a dozen overhands before one knocked Erceg out cold.
Welcome to title contention, “Temurlan.”
Rizvan Kuniev Is … Fun?
Rizvan Kuniev competed inside the Octagon for the third time last night, and the first two bouts were miserable. In nearly beating Curtis Blaydes and decisively picking apart Jailton Almeida, Kuniev proved himself a Top 10 Heavyweight … they were just awful fights with lots of clinch slogging.
The veteran unexpectedly turned up the heat versus Tyrell Fortune last night. From the first bell, he was pressuring forward and throwing punches with bad intentions. When he did push his way into the clinch, Kuniev was constantly attacking with digging knees or folding elbows. He didn’t give Fortune a chance to rest, and Kuniev was intentional about doing damage whenever possible.
The mentality shift was the biggest change, but Kuniev also showed some different technical looks. The first-round spin kick, for example, was a thing of beauty, and Kuniev repeatedly threw hard, angled knees like a Muay Thai striker.
As a result of his aggression and varied offense, Kuniev battered his foe’s body, shut an eye, and sliced up his face en route to a third-round knockout. Not only was this improved version of Kuniev fun to watch, but perhaps he can actually break into the title mix as well.
Heavyweight’s Top Meme Fighter
Valter Walker is hilarious, and he knows it.
The Brazilian failed to secure his fifth straight heel hook submission but did score a fifth leg lock finish at the expense of Thomas Petersen in just 92 seconds. Walker — who wears a detached foot as a necklace — does not make his game plan a secret, and yet he’s still able to routinely pull guard and submit these unranked Heavyweights with absolute ease.
Petersen, well-aware of what Walker would try to do, had an entire training camp to learn how to stop the heel hook. Apparently, all he picked up was to turn belly-down and crawl away? That’s not wrong exactly, but it’s only the first step of escaping a leg entanglement. Because Petersen failed to kick Walker off with his other leg or free the trapped knee line entirely, he gave up an easy calf slicer when Walker maintained control of the ankle and sat up.
What’s especially comedic is that Walker isn’t Gordon Ryan. He’s not doing anything complicated with these leg lock attacks. It would just appear that most unranked Heavyweights are incapable of learning to grapple, and Walker is happy to exploit that weakness again and again.
Additional Thoughts
- Mohammad Saidov defeats Dustin Jacoby via second-round knockout (highlights): A new Light Heavyweight contender emerges?!? Jacoby entered this fight riding a three-fight win streak against solid opposition and is generally one of the more trustworthy upper level gatekeepers in the division. Saidov, however, was largely unbothered by the former professional kickboxer’s offense. He was content to exchange from the first bell, and his gas tank held up well despite an exhaustive style filled with fast, powerful kicks. One of those kicks went high late in the second and was hidden beautifully by previous punches, catching Jacoby cleanly and off-guard. Saidov swarmed with about 30 punches, forcing the finish to complete a very impressive debut.
- Sam Patterson defeats Santiago Ponzinibbio via second-round knockout (highlights): Sadly, Ponzinibbio is pretty washed. The 39-year-old veteran never came back the same after his three-year layoff due to injuries and illness … and that was five years ago! Though Ponzinibbio is tough as an old shoe, he was outclassed here. 6’3” Sam Patterson did great work in maintaining his distance and battering Ponzinibbio with straight shots, only hitting him harder as the Argentinian tried to crash forward and close distance. The damage added up quickly, and a lovely 1-2 down the middle sat Ponzinibbio down for good.
- Axel Sola defeats Ismael Bonfim via first-round d’arce choke: It’s always odd when a fighter refuses to recognize what’s actually happening in the cage. Bonfim was absolutely committed to scoring takedowns along the cage, but they just weren’t happening! In the process, he ate a ton of elbows and short punches, and that damage added up. Before too long, Sola was able to stuff the shot out in space, cut an angle, and attack a slick d’arce choke on his battered foe.
- Abdul Hussein defeats Cody Gibson via third-round arm triangle choke (highlights): The evening’s curtain-jerker featured a fun grappling match with clear obstacles on either side. For Hussein, he was significantly smaller than his foe and looked more like a Flyweight than true 135-pounder. Gibson, meanwhile, took the fight on very short notice. As such, Gibson was able to dominate the early goings with several submission attempts, but he was absolutely exhausted by the end of the second. Hussein — a full decade younger than “The Renegade” — had little trouble maintaining his pace and tapping out his fatigued foe in the third.
