Last night (Sat., Sept. 6, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Accor Arena in Paris, France in UFC Paris. The promotion brought a great card to “The City of Light,” filled with regional European champions (even after the unfortunate cancellation of Losene Keita vs. Patricio Pitbull). It wasn’t just local talent either, as Imavov vs. Borralho and Saint-Denis vs. Ruffy were outstanding match ups by any metric. Add in an electric Parisian crowd, and all the elements required
for a memorable night in the Octagon were present!
Let’s take a look back over the best performances and techniques of the evening:
Imavov Picks Apart Borralho
Nassourdine Imavov lived up to his “Sniper” nickname.
From the first bell, the French fighter was fast and accurate. He seemed to see all of Borralho’s offense coming, ignoring the kicks and lighter shots then sitting down on heavy punches whenever Borralho did really try to come at him. Those accurate counter punches forced Borralho to hesitate, and he couldn’t get his wrestling going either. He ended up stranded on the outside and forced to punch at Imavov, often to his own detriment. A big part of the problem for Borralho is that he didn’t throw in combination, whereas Imavov repeatedly met his advance with two-three punches.
The question is will Imavov score a title shot after this win? He’s on a tremendous win streak, but he also left the door open for Reinier de Ridder or Anthony Hernandez to have a more impressive performance next month.
Fraud Check Reverse!
Benoit Saint-Denis steamrolled Mauricio Ruffy.
Off the bat, “BSD” was fighting smartly. He blasted huge left kicks into that Karate stance of Ruffy, making it difficult for the counter puncher to settle comfortably in his stance. He gave Ruffy relatively few chances to strike, forcing him on the defensive with relentless kicks and diving takedowns. Those shot entries weren’t pretty, but they forced Ruffy to play his opponent’s game and kept him from unleashing his punches.
Saint-Denis’ wrestling looked great here overall. He threw Ruffy down more than once and flowed well on the canvas, always applying suffocating pressure while advancing position. After just a few minutes of the ground mauling, the wind had left Ruffy’s sail, leaving him looking far more human on the few occasions he did scramble back to his feet.
The second-round submission seemed like a foregone conclusion after just a couple minutes.
In March 2024, Saint-Denis suffered an infamous fraud check at the check hook of Dustin Poirier. 18 months later, he’s back in a big way and still just 29 years old. Maybe Ruffy can rebound as well, but it’s clear he’s going to have to put some work into his ground defense if he’s to enjoy a resurgence of his own.
Goodbye Paul Craig
The Paul Craig experiment has come to its end.
Once again, he was stranded on his feet with a better striker, clinging to the clinch to avoid getting clobbered by a KO shot. He tried to jump a flying triangle towards the end of the round, but Modestas Bukauskas knew well to look out for the triangle. By standing over Craig and jamming his neck into the cage, he preemptively shut down the submission threat. Then, he was able to stand over Craig and deliver vicious shots, including the fight-finishing elbow that landed with a resounding thud.
It was vicious and fairly predictable. After the loss, Craig called it quits, hanging up the gloves at 37 years of age. Given his recent losing streak, it’s undoubtedly the right call.
Still, we have to give “Bearjew” some love! He’s one of the most overachieving UFC fighters of the last decade. Without ever learning how to box or finish a double leg, Craig managed to finish — not just beat, FINISH — three separate future/former UFC champions. He’s still the only loss on Magomed Ankalaev’s record all these years later. In many of his wins, Craig was forced to dig deep and show off his heart, making the comeback submissions all the more memorable.
If nothing else, he’s got the best triangle choke in UFC history.
Round of the Year?
Mason Jones vs. Bolaji Oki was awesome!
Both men were intent on taking the center and walking down the other, which created immediate fireworks. Unfortunately for Jones, Oki’s speed and power advantage were immediately on display, as he floored the durable Welshman twice with combinations. Oki sprinted for the finish, pouring on offense on the ground and on the feet in pursuit of the quick KO.
Nobody’s ever stopped “The Dragon” though. Jones was back on his feet and firing by the midway point in the round, and Oki was trying to catch a second wind. Jones refused to let him recover, knocking Oki down with a hook of his own and then chasing the kimura on a couple occasions. It was quite a reversal given how badly he was hurt early on!
With momentum in his corner, Jones didn’t take his foot off the gas in round two. After shucking off a double leg, he tossed Oki through the air with a clinch throw. From top position, Jones was clearly a class above, dominating position until able to secure mount and force the finish with elbows.
Now 2-0 since returning to the UFC, Jones is definitely must-watch action.
Delija’s Revenge
Croatia’s Ante Delija made his UFC debut opposite Marcin Tybura on the “Prelims,” but he’s been around the block. At 35 years of age, Delija is a 14-year pro and has fought tough competition in legitimate organizations like PFL and M-1 Global.
In fact, he actually fought Tybura once previously for M-1 way back in September 2015. He suffered a nasty broken leg in that bout, adding further motivation to pick up the win in his UFC debut. Delija came out of the gate firing fast here, blitzing Tybura with punches in perhaps a display of UFC jitters. Ever the veteran, Tybura secured the clinch and worked to slow the fight down, as he’s done to so many other Heavyweights.
Delija didn’t let it happen. He escaped the fence and unleashed again, this time finding a clean connection that stunned the Polish contender. Delija didn’t let Tybura off the hook, continuing his combination until Tybura crumbled to the floor. A lot of fighters have tried to blow Tybura out of the water, but very few (and usually only the best) succeed!
Not only is this a welcome to the UFC, it’s a welcome to the Top 10. Heavyweight needs new faces, so this debut KO couldn’t have been more timely!
The Rough Way To Join The UFC Roster
Cage Warriors Featherweight kingpin Harry Hardwick accepted a short-notice Lightweight debut against the talented Kaue Fernandes less than a week ago.
That’s an unreasonably tall task. Hardwick is a good fighter not a blue chip prospect. His odds of scoring the upset given the circumstance were quite low, but like almost every regional fighter, a UFC contract means greater pay and greater opportunity. He took the risk in the hopes of a long-term payoff, and in this case, the debut itself was more the price of admission.
It was a brutal fight for as long as it lasted. Fernandes — looking way bigger than his foe — slammed home a few calf kicks, and Hardwick was immediately hampered. More low kicks added up until Hardwick could barely walk, let alone fight.
Hardwick left the cage in a wheelchair. Hopefully, he’ll be awarded a full camp Featherweight fight for his suffering!
Don’t Sleep On Rinat!
Back in July 2023, Rinat Fakretdinov was one of the hottest prospects at 170-pounds after smoking Kevin Lee inside a minute to improve to 21-1 as a professional. Since then, some weaknesses have shown up in his conditioning when failing to secure the early finish or outright domination. Two extremely close decision wins and a draw soured the fan base on Fakretdinov and had him as a slight underdog versus hotshot newcomer Andreas Gustafsson.
“Gladiator” responded with a 54-second knockout win.
It feels like Gustafsson bought into the “Rinat isn’t that great” storyline, because he showed the power puncher ZERO respect. He charged Fakretdinov with the ugliest winging hooks you’ve ever seen, but the Russian kept his feet moving and timed him with counter shots. As soon as a straight shot snapped his head back, Gustafsson didn’t like it one bit and relented. The script flipped, and Gustafsson didn’t much like being the nail.
Now 6-0-1 in the UFC, it’s time to give Fakretdinov a ranked opponent.
Additional Thoughts
- Axel Sola defeats Rhys McKee via third-round knockout: Though sullied by a bit of an early stoppage, this was a strong debut showing from Sola, who was up 15-pounds from his usual weight class. Sola made the most of his speed advantage, however, employing a Karate stance and strong straight punches to bloody up McKee as the brawler tried to push forward. Just as McKee really began to gain some momentum, a pair of uppercuts to the solar plexus folded McKee to the canvas. It will be really interesting to see Sola return to the Octagon in his proper weight class moving forward!
- Oumar Sy defeats Brendson Ribeiro via first-round knockout: Outside of a single kimura attempt from Ribeiro that almost resulted in a sweep, this Light Heavyweight collision was entirely one-sided. Ribeiro has never successfully defended a takedown in the UFC, a fact which Sy took advantage of by landing easy double legs. He wasn’t able to do much with top position at first, but before long a few elbows allowed him to advance position and finish the fight with an onslaught of ground strikes. A first-round finish in front of the home crowd isn’t a bad way to rebound from your first professional loss!
- Sam Patterson defeats Trey Waters via first-round knockout (highlights): These two threw down for the entire three minutes that the bout lasted, but it was clear quickly that the Englishman was the sharper boxing. His jab was humming early, allowing him to line up a right hand around the guard that stunned Waters. Smelling blood, Patterson swarmed with a series of accurate rights, forcing the referee to intervene. Patterson has now won four straight fights via first-round KO, so perhaps it’s time for a step up in competition?
- Robert Bryczek defeats Brad Tavares via third-round knockout: I believe this is the Bryczek we all expected in his UFC debut, a shocking and uninspired loss to the unheralded Ihor Potieira. In his sophomore performance against a much better fighter, Bryczek impressed! He stormed out of the gate and rocked Tavares, unleashing hellacious combinations of hooks and wisely targeting the body. He nearly finished the veteran Hawaiian more than once in the first, causing a severe leak in Tavares’ nose. Tavares managed to rebound and win the second as Bryczek caught his breath, but he stormed forward again early in the third for another knockdown that finally forced the finish.
- Sam Hughes defeats Shauna Bannon via second-round rear naked choke (highlights): This was a one-sided smackdown! Hughes isn’t an overwhelmingly technical fighter, but she’s competent everywhere and has plenty of experience. In this case, her physicality was the huge advantage, as you could tell by Bannon’s movement and their clinch exchanges that there was a clear gap in fast-twitch athleticism and general strength alike. Subsequently, Hughes was pretty easily able to ground Bannon and beat her up. Hughes broke the young talent on the floor, securing her third-straight win in the process. She’s not likely to enter the rankings any time soon, but Hughes has carved out a role for herself as prospect tester.
For complete UFC Paris results and play-by-play, click here.
