Last night (Sat., Sept. 26, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned home to Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC Vegas 121. Sadly, it wasn’t the most interesting homecoming of all time on paper. The featured bout promised some intrigue given the 18-year age difference between Raoni Barcelos and Raul Rosas Jr., though it didn’t necessarily feel like main event. Otherwise, there were a pair of Ultimate Fighter finale bouts — is ANYBODY still watching TUF?!? — and some decent prospects
mixed into the card.
Let’s take a closer look at the best performances and highlight finishes of the evening:
A Horrifying Main Event
I wrote the above intro before what was expected to be an underwhelming Apex card turned out to be the most frightening moment of the year. A few hours after the event as publishing time quickly approaches, I don’t really know how to talk about Barcelos vs. Rosas Jr.
It would not be difficult to recap and break down the action of the fight, Rosas Jr.’s improvement on the feet or Barcelos’ fluid takedowns. On a technical level, there’s plenty to talk about in over 20 minutes of high-level and exciting combat. The question I find myself asking is whether that would be an appropriate reaction to what we all witnessed tonight.
Reports exist that Barcelos is conscious after his phantom knockout loss, which might actually have been some other kind of medical incident. Consciousness is a broad term, and being awake alone is not a guarantee of longterm health and safety. In these circumstances, it still feels wrong to really discuss anything other than the central priority of Raoni Barcelos’ well-being.
Raul Rosas Jr. said it best at the beginning of his post-fight interview: let’s pray for Raoni Barcelos. Until we have real confirmation of what the hell happened here, talk of strategic choices and divisional implications can wait.
Two TUF Champions Crowned
In the first of two TUF finale matchups, Tina Black smashed Melissa Amaya in a Strawweight war.
This matchup could be broken down to a single weapon: the intercepting right hand. Time and time again, Black would take her head off the center line as Amaya surged forward and absolutely nailed her opponent with repeated right hands. Black also showed some nice offense off the double jab, but it was her counter right that repeatedly rocked and eventually finished Amaya.
Black has serious power for a 115-pounder and is a welcome addition to the roster. She could have been signed outright without going through the TUF house, but either way, she’s here now and already looks up to the task of a ranked opponent.
A bout later, Ilimbek Akylbek squared off with Mehemmedeli Osmanli in the Bantamweight final, a classic case of wrestler vs. striker. The UFC machine was clearly behind Osmanli, who won in the semi-finals with an insane buggy choke finish. Unfortunately, Osmanli landed a massive illegal knee early in the fight, blasting a kneeling Akylbek in the face shortly into the first round.
The end result? A disqualification victory for Akylbek … and a lot of disappointment generally.
A Bantamweight Upset
Brady Hiestand was forced to dig deep and get crafty to upset Rinya Nakamura in the “Prelims” headliner.
Hiestand began the fight with a non-stop takedown assault but couldn’t quite drag down the vaunted wrestler. As a result of all that energy expenditure, however, Hiestand was able to feint takedowns and come up with strikes. It added a necessary level of unpredictability to his attack, which helped make up for the athletic disadvantage. On the flip side, Nakamura’s kickboxing was sharp. His left kick was flying, knocking Hiestand out of his stance and hammering the body as well. When Nakamura did fire his punches, he was clearly the heavier hitter. Hiestand was throwing a ton of volume comparatively but wasn’t putting all his power into every shot, making for some interesting exchanges.
The already-exciting fight heated up further in round two. Nakamura started wrestling offensively and was forced to fight off a deep choke attempt. Afterward, his wrestling efforts allowed him to unleash a nasty flurry of left hands and left elbows along the fence. He was starting to hurt Hiestand on the feet more often, but Hiestand was able to wrestle back into good position and get behind Nakamura.
For the second time in the round, Nakamura didn’t show his opponent’s submission threat enough respect. He was focused on wrestling and scrambling into top position rather than protecting his neck. As a result, Hiestand was able to get far ahead of Nakamura in the race for the submission. By the time the Japanese prospect shifted his focus to defending the strangle, it was too late!
“Bam Bam” has now won four straight and just picked up the best scalp of his young career. Well-rounded and tactical, Hiestand may be knocking on the door of a ranking soon.
UFC Career Saved
I don’t have anything against Josiah Harrell, but I was pleased to see Elves Brener return to the win column.
The Chute Boxe representative and Charles Oliveira teammate has faced a rough go of things lately. Brener began his UFC career with a remarkable upset win over Guram Kutateladze and then followed up with another awesome knockout, and then he hit a wall. Brener would lose his next three fights to a difficult trio of Lightweight opponents: Myktybek Orolbai, Joel Alvarez, and Esteban Ribovics.
Two of those men are now Welterweights, the exception is a ranked Lightweight, and all three are very talented!
Still, exciting losses does not a UFC career make. Brener’s back was to the wall here, but a step back in competition allowed him to demonstrate his skills. Harrell tried to push forward aggressively with his takedowns and combinations, but Brener smoothly shut down the wrestling and picked him apart.
For once, the Brazilian slugger didn’t brawl. Using stance switches to hide his offense, Brener landed hard kicks to a variety of targets. Then, he started poking with heavy jabs, feinting kicks, and building further offense. He was a step ahead of Brener, and the damage quickly added up. Suddenly, Brener faked a right kick, stepped into Southpaw, and then hammered Harrell with a nasty right hook from the southpaw stance.
Harrell hit the canvas face-first.
An exciting knockout win should secure Brener’s place on the roster for quite a while. It’s also a reminder that the talented Lightweight is only 28 years old, so perhaps he can develop further and have more success in a future run at the Top 15.
Additional Thoughts
- Luis Hernandez defeats Sedriques Dumas via first-round guillotine (highlights): I know everyone had a lot of fun with the “Cop vs. Felon” angle of this short-notice fight, but I’m here to be a downer: Dumas is embarrassing. He should’ve been cut ages ago and barely puts forth any effort in the cage. Dumas did NOTHING to defend the guillotine choke here. Just an outright awful effort from Dumas, which diminishes Hernandez’s accomplishment in turn. Honestly, you might as well consider Hernandez’s next UFC fight as his actual promotional debut.
- Christian Edwards defeats Rodolfo Bellato via third-round knockout (highlights): Bellato won a large swath of this fight. He never bothered to match his opponent’s volume, but Bellato’s punches were landing with a much greater impact in the first two rounds, rocking Edwards on a couple occasions. Edwards’ rangy offense looked decent, but his complete lack of head movement saw him repeatedly timed by intercepting blows. However, Edwards’ corner did a great job of lighting a fire beneath him with just one round to go. He stormed forward and — after getting cracked by numerous left hooks in the first two rounds — smoked Bellato with a left hook of his own!
- Montel Jackson defeats Ricky Simon via second-round knockout (highlights): Revenge! It’s been eight years since the first Simon vs. Jackson bout, which saw a short-notice replacement “Quik” repeatedly grounded by Simon in his UFC debut. There would be no repeat performance, however, as Jackson managed the range much more effectively. He forced Simon to try to close distance with his combinations then picked him off, timing Simon with his long left hand repeatedly. Simon found some success with hard low kicks and the occasional takedown, but he couldn’t hold down Jackson. The left hand continued to land with a scary consistency, producing a knockdown late in the first and then a full knockout in the second. Simon is a durable Bantamweight, but you simply can’t eat that many power shots from a major hitter like Jackson.
- Yazmin Jauregui defeats Vanessa Demopoulos via first-round knockout (highlights): God damn! Jauregui unloaded two years of frustration on her opponent’s jawline in just 62 seconds. She connected cleanly with a right hand early and then fired off roughly a 30-punch combination while her opponent was pinned on the fence. The hesitant referee thought about stopping the fight on multiple occasions and probably should have acted. Instead, Jauregui threw her foe to the floor and sealed the deal with a couple hammerfists that left Demopoulos limp. Back when Jauregui joined the UFC roster, she was a highly touted prospect, but she hasn’t yet lived up to those expectations. Still just 27 years old, this was an encouraging victory from the Mexican standout. Hopefully, it’s the start of a streak?
