UFC Vegas 8 Results: Aleksandar Rakic in title contention following big win; Robbie Lawler gets dominated; former title contender to retire and more
The UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada hosted Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 8 event, a high octane fight card featuring ten bouts, which was headlined by a light heavyweight encounter between former title challenger Anthony Smith and Aleksandar Rakic.
The co-main event of the night featured a welterweight clash between fight game veterans Robbie Lawler and Neil Magny.
Glance through all of tonight’s UFC Vegas 8 results and highlights below:
Anthony Smith vs. Aleksandar Rakic – Rakic def. Smith by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27 x2)
Anthony Smith entered the main event looking to bounce back from his disappointing TKO loss to Glover Teixeira in May, earlier this year. Prior to the loss against Teixeira, Anthony Smith recorded a big impressive submission victory over former title challenger Alexander Gustafsson.
Smith's opponent on the night, Aleksandar Rakic entered tonight’s UFC Vegas 8 main event on the back of the second-ever loss in his professional MMA career. In his last fight at UFC Busan, Rakic suffered a controversial split-decision loss to former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir. The loss marked the end of a twelve-fight win streak for Rakic.
In what was his first UFC main event, Aleksandar Rakic picked up the biggest win of his career against former title contender Anthony Smith with a dominant performance. Rakic displayed a brilliant stand-up as well as ground game to dismantle Smith in the fight. Troubling "The Lionheart" with kicks on the feet and then mauling him with some vicious ground and pound led to a lopsided unanimous decision win for Rakic after three rounds. The scorecards read 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27.
“I’m happy with my performance against a veteran and a former title challenger,” Rakic said after having his hand raised in victory. “Everybody underestimates my wrestling and my grappling. I showed the world and I showed the division that I’m not only a dangerous striker, I can wrestle, I can grapple, I can dominate on the ground. These guys need to take me serious cause I’m in the top five now.”
Robbie Lawler vs. Neil Magny – Magny def. Lawler by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Tonight’s UFC Vegas 8 co-main event featured the return of former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler squared off against Neil Magny. In what turned out to be another disappointing Octagon outing, former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler has now lost his fourth straight fight in a row.
Neil Magny dominated Lawler throughout their three round contest to win a lopsided decision, handing the former champ his fourth consecutive loss in a row. Magny dominated all the rounds and showed a better striking and grappling game than his opponent.
In the third and final round of the contest, Magny left Lawler a bloody mess with gruesome strikes. With the win over Lawler, Magny is now just two wins shy of Georges St-Pierre's record of most number of wins in the UFC welterweight division.
Ji Yeon Kim vs. Alexa Grasso – Grasso def. Kim by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Moving up to flyweight proved to be the right decision for Alexa Grasso at UFC Vegas 8 as the 125lbs debutant picked up a win against Ji Yeon Kim in the pair's main card scrap on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Mexican prospect showed good speed, power and conditioning to out-strike Kim for all three rounds and the constant pressure left Kim visibly gassed towards the end of the fight, which Grasso won via unanimous decision with all three judges all scored the fight 30-27 in favor of Grasso.
Ricardo Lamas vs. Bill Algeo – Lamas def. Algeo by unanimous decision (29-27 x3)
Veteran UFC featherweight Ricardo Lamas may have just fought for the last time in his professional career at UFC Vegas 8, and if this was his swansong, Lamas is definitely going out with his head high.
The former title contender recently revealed that he has been contemplating retirement and though he didn't confirm whether he's officially hanging his gloves, Lamas promised to put up a show at UFC Vegas 8 and boy did he turn up.
In a back-and-forth war with Bill Algeo, Lamas prevailed following three grueling rounds of high-octane action inside the cage. Lamas secured the win via unanimous decision and all three judges scored the fight 29-27 in Lamas' favor.
UFC Vegas 8 Main Card
Anthony Smith vs. Aleksandar Rakic – Rakic def. Smith by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27 x2)
Robbie Lawler vs. Neil Magny – Magny def. Lawler by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Ji Yeon Kim vs. Alexa Grasso – Grasso def. Kim by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Ricardo Lamas vs. Bill Algeo – Lamas def. Algeo by unanimous decision (29-27 x3)
UFC Vegas 8 Prelims
Maki Pitolo vs. Impa Kasanganay – Kasanganay def. Pitolo by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Alessio Di Chirico vs. Zak Cummings – Cummings def. Di Chirico by unanimous decision (29-28 x2, 30-27)
Alex Caceres vs. Austin Springer – Caceres def. Springer via submission (Rear-naked choke) in Round 1
Sean Brady vs. Christian Aguilera – Brady def Aguilera via submission (guillotine) at 1:47 of Round 2
Polyana Viana vs. Emily Whitmire – Viana def. Whitmire via submission (armbar) at 1:53 of Round 1
Mallory Martin vs. Hannah Cifers – Martin def. Cifers via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:33 of Round 2