Carlos Prates will march into the Top 15 of the welterweight division on Tuesday, and he did it emphatically. Prates scored a huge first-round knockout win over Neil Magny leaving the veteran facedown, out cold in the closing seconds
Here is a look at the finish:
The victory was the 11th in a row for Prates and his tenth consecutive victory by KO/TKO finish. Coming into the fight, Magny was ranked No. 15. That number will almost certainly belong to Prates and Magny will fall out of the rankings. Prates earned a performance of the night bonus for his finish.
After the fight, Prates had two callouts. Initially, he called out No. 4 Jack Della Maddelena, but he realized that request might be a bit out of his reach at this point in his career.
Prates’ second target was far more practical. The Brazilian asked for No. 10 Geoff Neal who just had a very short TKO win over Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 308 in October. Neal could easily be ready for Prates in February at UFC 312.
Don’t be shocked if that fight is next for Prates.
Reinier de Ridder def. Gerald Meerschaert via third-round submission (head-and-arm choke)
RDR didn’t look spectacular in parts of his UFC debut, but he ultimately got what he came for, and that’s a submission win over Meerschaert. Coming over from ONE Championship, where he was a two-division champion, RDR showed he can compete in the UFC, but while he won, the 34-year-old fell short of looking like a championship contender.
Here is a look at the finish.
Here is a look at the results from the rest of the card including the other three bonus winners.
- Gaston Bolaños def. Cortavious Romious via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27×2)
- Gillian Robertson def. Luana Pinheiro via unanimous decision (29-28×2, 29-27)
- 🏆 Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Duško Todorović via first-round TKO
In one of the more spectacular main-card debuts this year, Abdul-Malik destroyed Todorovic in the first round. The last place anyone wants to be is beneath Abdul-Malik taking in the powerful middleweights ground-and-pound strikes.
Abdul-Malik earned one of the four performance bonuses.
- Denise Gomes def. Karolina Kowalkiewicz via unanimous decision (30-27×2, 29-28)
- Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Zach Scroggin via first-round TKO
- Zaleski dos Santos made Scroggin pay for badly missing weight for the fight. This fight ended in less than 90 seconds with another vicious TKO.
- 🏆Charles Radtke def. Matthew Semelsberger via first-round TKO
Semelsberger tried to stand with Radtke, but that was a losing approach. In another first-round finish, Radtke made quick work of Semelsberger to keep the action rolling. Radtke also earned a bonus.
- 🏆Da’Mon Blackshear def. Cody Stamann via first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Stamann was considered a future title contender at one time, but on Saturday, he fell into the web of the spider-like Blackshear and lost via first-round submission. Blackshear’s mastery earned a bonus.
- Tresean Gore def. Antonio Trócoli via first-round submission (guillotine)
Gore’s explosiveness was a problem for Trocoli early in the fight, but the end came as the former could lock in a standing guillotine, leading to the submission win.
- Melissa Mullins def. Klaudia Syguła via second-round TKO
To open the show and set the tone for the night, Mullins quickly dispatched Sygula, getting the finish with dozens of unanswered punches from backmount.
Next week, the UFC shifts to Madison Square Garden for UFC 309. Jon Jones, who was present for the event at the Apex, will defend his title against Stipe Miocic.
Be on the lookout for fight week coverage.
