Two longtime champions were dethroned Saturday at UFC 323 in Las Vegas, but in completely opposite ways.
Joshua Van is the new men’s flyweight king, because Alexandre Pantoja suffered an arm injury seconds into the co-main event while defending a takedown. It was immediately clear Pantoja would not be able to continue, and the referee called the fight. On the other hand, Petr Yan got his revenge on “The Machine” Merab Dvalishvili by shrugging off nearly every Dvalishvili takedown attempt and keeping up with the former champ’s relentless pace for five rounds. Saturday’s unanimous decision victory marks the beginning of Yan’s second title reign. He first won the title in 2020. Since losing to Dvalishvili by unanimous decision in March 2023, Yan is on a four-fight winning streak, which includes tonight’s rematch.
The UFC 323 prelims featured several highlight-reel knockouts, including a late entry for fight of the year between Iwo Baraniewski and Ibo Aslan. The main card began with a rare majority draw, then double champion Henry Cejudo officially retired from competition after a hard-fought loss to Payton Talbott.
Brett Okamoto, Jeff Wagenheim, Andreas Hale and Dre Waters were on hand all night to break down the action at UFC 323.