Natalia Silva Crowned Flyweight Champ in Record KO Night

Full transcript

Jessica: I don't even know where to start with last night. Nine first-round knockouts. A new champion. Four modern-era records, gone in one night. Marcus: And this was the card everyone was dunking on! Israel Adesanya literally admitted he thought it was a Fight Night. Jessica: Okay, I'm saying it right now. If you skipped UFC three thirty-two because the card looked thin on paper, you missed one of the wildest nights of the year. Marcus: The doubters are very quiet today. Jessica: Yeah, well, Adesanya can sit down. Eleven finishes, and every single one was a knockout. This is Budocast. Marcus: Welcome to Budocast, MMA, UFC, and martial arts news, every single week. I'm Marcus. Jessica: And I'm Jessica. Salt Lake City absolutely delivered last night, so let's start with the biggest story. Natalia Silva is your new UFC women's flyweight champion. Marcus: Five rounds against Wang Cong, and she took it by unanimous decision. Forty-eight to forty-seven, forty-eight to forty-seven, and forty-nine to forty-six. Jessica: The scores were tighter than it felt for most of the fight, honestly. Silva came out blazing. Her speed was the whole story early, kicks, straight punches, angles everywhere. She dropped Cong in the second, then dropped her again in the third. Marcus: And Cong just wouldn't go away. The championship rounds hit, and she found a second wind. She landed her best shots of the fight in the fifth. But Silva had banked too many rounds by then. Jessica: That fifth round was chaos. Cong swinging for the fences, and Silva just slick enough to not get caught clean. You could feel the title slipping through Cong's fingers in real time. Marcus: Fifteen straight wins now for Silva. Twenty-one, five and one overall, nine and oh in the UFC. And remember the road here. She beat three former champions in a row to earn her shot. Andrade, Grasso, Namajunas. Jessica: She was supposed to face Valentina Shevchenko for the belt. Then Shevchenko vacated with that back and shoulder injury, out for at least a year. So the title was vacant, and Silva went and took it. Marcus: She's the fifth champion in the division's history. Cong falls to ten and two, and honestly, she had her moments. She beat Shevchenko in a kickboxing match back in twenty fifteen, so the talent was real. But Silva's just on another level right now. Jessica: The question now is who's next. The division was frozen waiting for a champion, and now it's Silva's. Somebody's going to have to step up fast. Marcus: The timing's interesting too, because women's flyweight has been in limbo since Shevchenko got hurt. Now there's a real champion to chase again, and the whole division wakes back up. Jessica: And don't sleep on Cong either. She beat Shevchenko in kickboxing, she just went five hard rounds with Silva. She'll be right back in the mix. Marcus: Co-main event next, and this one was not competitive. Payton Talbott just ran through Deiveson Figueiredo. Jessica: Two minutes and nine seconds. The first clean punch Talbott landed had Figueiredo on wobbly legs. He never recovered. Talbott smelled it, poured it on, and the ref waved it off. Marcus: That's two former champions in a row for Talbott. He beat Henry Cejudo earlier this year, and now Figueiredo. That's not a streak anymore, that's a statement. Jessica: And he knows it. He's already calling for Sean O'Malley next. Make that fight. That's an absolute banger on paper. Marcus: Talbott's won three in a row now. The bantamweight division just got a whole lot more interesting. Jessica: Two of those over former champions. You don't get a cleaner title-shot argument than that. Alright, the numbers from this card are honestly absurd. Eleven finishes, a modern-era UFC record. Nine of them in the first round, also a record. Sixteen knockdowns, also a record. Marcus: And here's my favorite detail. With that many knockouts, there was no Fight of the Night. Too many finishes to pick one! So they just handed out four Performance of the Night bonuses, a hundred thousand dollars each. Jessica: First one goes to Roman Kopylov. He was supposed to be a stepping stone for Ateba Gautier, the hyped knockout machine. Three twelve into round one, Kopylov lands a straight left, drops him, swarms him, and it's over. First person to ever finish Gautier. Marcus: Gautier was a three-to-one favorite! Kopylov said afterward he felt like he was dreaming. A hundred thousand dollars will wake you up real fast. Jessica: Second bonus, Imanol Rodriguez. Eight and oh, still undefeated. He caught Alden Coria with a front kick right to the body at three eleven of round one, Coria went down screaming, and the ref jumped in. Marcus: Coria trains with flyweight champ Joshua Van, so people had real eyes on him. Rodriguez just announced that the flyweight division better watch out for him too. Jessica: Third, Damian Pinas. Seventy-five seconds. An uppercut that reportedly broke Andrey Pulyaev's jaw. Seventy-five seconds! Marcus: Violent. And Pinas called for a top-ten opponent right after. Eleven and one now, three and oh in the UFC. He earned that call-out. Jessica: And fourth, Johnny Walker. Heavyweight debut. A jumping knee, then another knee in the clinch, and Mick Parkin was out cold at three thirty-five of round one. Marcus: Walker looked like a different animal at heavyweight. The man's finally fighting at a weight that fits his frame, and it showed. Instant contender chatter after that. Jessica: People forget how long Walker's been around. He debuted in the UFC way back in twenty eighteen. Seven years later, he finds his real home at heavyweight. Then six more fighters picked up twenty-five-thousand-dollar finish bonuses. Talbott, Marcus McGhee, Anthony Wint, Jacobe Smith, Alexander Hernandez, and Eric Nolan. Marcus: One guy who didn't get one, and this one hurts. Esteban Ribovics knocked out King Green in round one, but he missed weight. Ineligible for bonuses. That missed weight just cost him at least twenty-five grand. Jessica: The scale giveth, and the scale taketh away. Let's run the rest of the card, because there were stories everywhere. Roberto Soldic's UFC debut, the Croatian beat Khaos Williams by unanimous decision. Twenty-nine to twenty-eight, and twenty-nine to twenty-seven twice. Marcus: Williams actually stung him early, so Soldic started wrestling, and from there it was all him. Impressive debut against a tough out. Jessica: Alexander Hernandez stopped Rafael dos Anjos in the second round. Dos Anjos has been around forever, and Hernandez just overwhelmed him with pressure. Marcus: And the one that made people emotional. Court McGee. This was expected to be his last fight, and Eric Nolan knocked him out in the third round. Jessica: Brutal way to go out, but McGee has been a warrior for years. Tip of the cap either way. Marcus: Ismail Naurdiev beat Marvin Vettori by unanimous decision, twenty-nine to twenty-eight on all three cards. That's a big win for Naurdiev. Jessica: Ribovics needed the first round to stop King Green. Marcus McGhee finished Anthony Romero late in round one. Anthony Wint needed just twenty-three seconds to stop Lucas Armand. Marcus: Twenty-three seconds! Blink and you missed it. Jessica: And Jacobe Smith knocked out Bruce Whitehead in round one too. Sixteen thousand four hundred ninety-two fans in the Delta Center, two point seven million dollar gate. Salt Lake City showed up. Marcus: Quick break. When we come back, Bangkok delivered too, with a title defense and a rivalry settled. But first, you ever wanted to run your own martial arts gym, without the rent and the insurance bills? Jessica: That's Dojo Tycoon. It's a free-to-play martial arts management sim. You build your gym from nothing, hire coaches, train fighters, run your own events. Marcus: And four ninety-nine unlocks the full game. No rent, no leaky roof, no three AM plumbing emergencies. Links in the show notes. Jessica: Alright, let's head to Bangkok. ONE Championship had a doubleheader at Lumpinee Stadium on Friday, and it was a big one. Marcus: Start with ONE Fight Night forty-eight. Main event, Shamil Erdogan versus Paul Elliott at heavyweight. Elliott had title hopes riding on this, and Erdogan ended them. Jessica: Round two, two twenty-eight. Erdogan took Elliott's back, Elliott tried to scramble up, exposed his neck, and Erdogan locked in the rear-naked choke. Tap, done. Marcus: Erdogan stays unbeaten, and honestly, Elliott's power had him thinking for a minute in the second round. The kid's title dreams aren't dead, but this one stung. Jessica: Antonio Cesar handed Joshua Perreira the first loss of his career. Cesar controlled the fight, smashed him with elbows on the ground, and between rounds Perreira told his corner his eye was too damaged to continue. Doctor stoppage at the end of round one. Marcus: Cesar's won ten straight now. Fifteen and two. That flyweight division just got a new problem. Jessica: Arian Esparza knocked out Sam Fitzgerald in round one. Parham Gheirati beat Nakrob Fairtex by unanimous decision. And Luke Lessei edged Charlie Guest, also by unanimous decision. Marcus: Then the Inner Circle thirty-three, same night, same building. The big one, Regian Eersel versus George Jarvis, the rematch, with Eersel's lightweight Muay Thai title on the line. Jessica: And Jarvis nearly blew the whole thing up in round one! He dropped Eersel with a right hand. The champ was on the canvas. Marcus: But Eersel is Eersel. He recovered, dropped Jarvis with a left hook in the second, and finished him with another left hook in round four. One thirty-nine. Title defended, rivalry settled, and the revenge was sweet. Jessica: Duangdawnoi won her fourth straight on the ONE stage, unanimous decision over Aline Seiberth. And on Friday Fights one seventy-three, Tonglampoon edged Santos Tobias by split decision in the main event, and Cal Cook scored a first-round TKO. Marcus: Bangkok never sleeps, man. Jessica: Quick news desk. Looking ahead, UFC three thirty-three is October twenty-fourth in Abu Dhabi. Marcus: Asaf Chopurov makes his UFC debut there against Colby Thicknesse. Eleven and oh, Petr Yan's main training partner, and he nearly missed Sean Shelby's email for a week. What a story. Jessica: And the main event there is Yan versus Merab Dvalishvili, the trilogy. That's going to be massive. Marcus: In November, Kayla Harrison faces Amanda Nunes. The flyweight picture got settled last night, but bantamweight's about to get very loud. Jessica: And don't sleep on the ONE Grand Prix either. Eight of the best little killers on the planet, one bracket. That might end up being the best tournament of the year, full stop. And on the ONE side, that eight-man flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix is still coming in November. Rodtang, Nong-O, Yoshinari. November can't come fast enough. Marcus: That's the news desk. Before we wrap, a word about Fight Card. Jessica: If you run tournaments, you know the pain of building brackets by hand at midnight the night before the event. Marcus: Fight Card does it all for you. Automatic brackets, competitor self-registration, weigh-ins, mat scheduling, and live results your fans can follow from home. Jessica: It's free to start, no credit card, and there's an interactive demo you can play with right now at fight card dot pro. Marcus: That's fight card dot pro. Your tournaments will thank you. Jessica: And for the gym owners listening, Lotus. All-in-one studio management, forty-nine ninety-nine a month, free trial with no credit card, plus a student web portal your members will actually use. Marcus: Links for everything in the show notes. Jessica: That's the show, folks. Marcus: I'm Marcus. Jessica: And I'm Jessica. We'll see you next week.