The 5 biggest winners from UFC Vegas 21: Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad
UFC Vegas 21’s main event didn’t end how most would’ve liked it to. The fight between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad ended prematurely in the second round due to an errant eye poke from Edwards.
Neither fighter in the main event of UFC Vegas 21 ended up being a big winner on the night, but there were other fighters who saw their stock rise pretty dramatically.
Without further ado, here are the five biggest winners from UFC Vegas 21: Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad.
#1 Dan Ige – knocked out Gavin Tucker in a UFC Featherweight bout
Last night’s biggest winner was probably UFC Featherweight contender Dan Ige.
‘$50k’ took just 22 seconds to spark out Gavin Tucker with a wonderfully timed, accurate right hand. Tucker hit the deck like he’d been shot, and Ige barely needed to follow up.
The commentators last night – UFC legends Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier – even tried to suggest that the knockout took less time than the official 22-second call.
Nevertheless, there’s a definite argument that this was Ige’s biggest UFC win to date.
Sure, he’s got wins over Edson Barboza and Mirsad Bektic, but both wins were close decisions that could’ve gone either way. There was simply no doubt about last night’s knockout, though.
After suffering his first UFC loss since 2018 in his fight with Calvin Kattar last year, Ige could well have slipped into irrelevancy like other fringe contenders before him. But with this knockout, he’ll probably re-enter title contention at 145lbs.
#2 Ryan Spann – knocked out Misha Cirkunov in a UFC Light-Heavyweight bout
Ryan Spann came into last night’s fight with Misha Cirkunov as a considerable underdog. Cirkunov hadn’t fought since 2019, but he was renowned as a crushingly powerful fighter and perhaps the strongest grappler in the UFC Light-Heavyweight division.
However, the Latvian-Canadian had displayed a questionable chin before in knockout losses to Johnny Walker and Volkan Oezdemir. Last night that came back to haunt him again.
Spann looked like the more smoother man on the feet, and when he dropped Cirkunov early on, he refused to get reckless in an attempt to finish his opponent.
Instead, he beckoned the grappler to his feet and then nailed him again with a short left to the temple. This time, Cirkunov went down and couldn’t recover as Spann picked up his biggest UFC win in a while.
Light-Heavyweight – with a new-ish champion in Jan Blachowicz – is a very open division right now. And with this win, ‘Superman’ should be considered a genuine title contender now.
#3 Rani Yahya – defeated Ray Rodriguez in a UFC Bantamweight bout
It sounds hard to believe, but with 11 finishes to his name, veteran grappler Rani Yahya now has the most stoppage wins in UFC and WEC Bantamweight history.
He picked up his latest one last night in his first UFC fight in a year, comfortably dealing with Ray Rodriguez and tapping him with an arm triangle choke in the second round. What made his win more impressive was that Yahya made it look remarkably easy.
Rodriguez simply couldn’t stop the Brazilian’s takedowns, and once he was on top, Yahya sliced through his guard like a knife through hot butter.
It felt like only a matter of time before the veteran found a submission, and sure enough, an arm triangle variant from half-guard was enough for him to seal the deal.
At the age of 36, Yahya certainly isn’t likely to move into UFC title contention again. But he’s definitely a dangerous man to any up-and-comers in the Bantamweight division.
This win means he remains very relevant more than 15 years after he made his WEC debut.
#4 Angela Hill – defeated Ashley Yoder in a UFC Strawweight bout
Angela Hill had already beaten Ashley Yoder once, doing so in their clash in the summer of 2018. However, it wasn’t her easiest win. Their first fight saw Yoder have plenty of success against Hill on the ground, who squeezed out the win by virtue of her superior striking.
Last night though, ‘Overkill’ was largely dominant in all areas. Yoder did manage a couple of takedowns, but this time they weren’t effective at all, and Hill was quickly able to get back to her feet.
And while standing, Hill was just as good as most fans expect her to be these days, landing plenty of clean right hands and knees to the body. Sure, she didn’t get a finish, but then Yoder has never been stopped in her MMA career. Sometimes, a finish just isn’t all that easy to find.
By snapping her two-fight losing streak, Hill should once again rise up the UFC’s Strawweight ladder, which makes her one of last night’s big winners.
#5 Charles Jourdain – defeated Marcelo Rojo in a UFC Featherweight bout
Probably the best fight on offer last night was the Featherweight clash between Charles Jourdain and Marcelo Rojo. The two men went toe-to-toe from the opening seconds of their skirmish, and the pace didn’t slacken till it ended late in the third round.
The first two rounds could’ve gone either way, but Jourdain – apparently figuring he was down on the scorecards – simply turned up the heat in the third and scorched his opponent.
‘Air Jourdain’ threw literally everything in his arsenal at Rojo in that final stanza, hitting him with a myriad of strikes before the latter finally wilted under pressure with just 30 seconds remaining.
We’ve seen UFC fights stopped later than this, but it’s rare to see a fighter pull away in the last round quite like this. It was a remarkable display of violence from Jourdain, one which gave him his first UFC win since his 2019 victory over Doo Ho Choi.
That fight was another remarkably entertaining one, which suggests that ‘Air Jourdain’ is one of the division’s most entertaining fighters at the moment.
Hopefully, next time he’s in action, he finds himself on the main card. After a performance like this, he definitely deserves one.