On Saturday night, referee Herb Dean raised Arnold Allen’s hand to signal his victory by TKO over Calvin Kattar in the main event of the UFC Vegas 63 fight card. With that, Allen tied the featherweight champion of UFC Alexander Volkanovski for the longest active winning streak in the promotion’s 145-pound weight class. Admittedly, the win came in less than ideal conditions – a knee injury prevented Kattar from continuing – but that doesn’t take the victory off Arnold’s record.
Allen, 28, began his march up the UFC featherweight division in June 2015 with a submission victory over Alan Omer. On Saturday night, Allen was the No. 6 ranked fighter in the official UFC featherweight rankings. Kattar checked in at No. 5. It’s not a lock, but there’s a good chance the two will change positions when these rankings are updated.
In the co-main event, a welterweight battle between Max Griffin and Tim Means ended with Griffin getting the split nod.
Read on for the winners and losers of UFC Vegas 63, which took place at the UFC Apex and streamed on ESPN+.
Winners:
Arnold Allen: Before his fight against Calvin Kattar ended with Kattar unable to continue due to a knee injury, Arnold Allen was doing Arnold Allen things. Meaning he was landing strikes while dodging his opponent’s attack. Entering UFC Vegas 63, Allen ranked second among UFC active featherweights in striking defense, avoiding 66.7% of his opponent’s significant strikes.
Allen’s defense against Kattar, which averaged 5.19 strikes per minute before the event, was better than his UFC average. In the first five minutes of the fight, Allen had 76% hitting defense.
With UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski set to challenge for the promotion’s lightweight title in February at UFC 284, the UFC may decide to crown an interim featherweight champion. If so, Allen, who should be able to return to the octagon very soon barring an unknown or undisclosed injury, would be a prime candidate to be one half of that interim title.
Max Griffin: Max Griffin picked up a big win over Tim Means in the co-main event. Griffin used his strike to hurt his foe and his struggle to control Means on the mat.
Griffin did a great job in the third round heeding instructions from his corner. Griffin’s faith in his coaches allowed him to take 3:44 of time in control during the third stanza and limit Means to 10 significant strikes.
The victory put Griffin back in the win column after a split decision loss in March to Neil Magny that ended a three-game winning streak.
Waldo Cortés-Acosta: Waldo Cortes-Acosta picked up his first UFC victory and took his professional record to 8-0 with a decisive victory over Jared Vanderaa. Cortes-Acosta has a lot of power in his shots, but he ate an excessive number of calf kicks that slowed him down. I expect Cortes-Acosta to use his UFC Vegas 63 win as a learning experience and make adjustments to his style and approach. If he doesn’t, he’ll find himself in trouble when he faces higher-level competition.
Tresean Gore: Tresean Gore was likely fighting for his UFC career on Saturday night against Josh Fremd. Gore was 0-2 with the promotion, but he scored a poor technical submission victory via a guillotine choke to secure his first win under the UFC banner.
Dustin Jacoby versus. Khalil Routree Junior: Dustin Jacoby and Khalil Rountree Jr. put on a solid back-and-forth battle. Both fighters mixed their strikes and targets well, but Rountree’s power carried him to victory.
With the victory, Rountree has his first three-fight winning streak as a UFC fighter. As for Jacoby, who was the No. 13 fighter in the official UFC light heavyweight rankings ahead of UFC Vegas 63, he tasted defeat for the first time in his second run with the UFC. Jacoby was 6-0-1 with the promotion since returning in 2020.
Roman Dolidze: Roman Dolidze’s arrival of Phil Hawes wasn’t easy to watch, but it was a big knockout victory for Dolidze, who is now on a two-fight winning streak.
Marcos Rogerio de Lima: Marcos Rogerio de Lima crushed Andrei Arlovski at UFC Vegas 63, knocking him down early in the first round and then ending the fight via a rear choke at 1:50.
De Lima has called for a match in Brazil in January, a fight he should be able to book given he only absorbed three strikes on Saturday.
Jun Yong Park: Jun Yong Park pulled off a smart and professional submission win over Joseph Holmes. Park used his struggle to negate his opponent’s height advantage, then slowly destroyed Holmes on the way to victory by rear-end choke.
Steve Garcia: Steve Garcia bounced back from a nasty knockout loss at UFC 275 to score his own stoppage at UFC Vegas 63. Garcia scored three knockdowns in 92 seconds against Chase Hooper on Saturday before Herb Dean quit the fight.
Cody Durden: Cody Durden earned his first two-fight winning streak on Saturday with a victory over favorite Carlos Mota. Durden used his wrestling and high level game to neutralize Mota, racking up 12:32 of control time on his way to victory.
Durden fought for his strength in this match, but it must be emphasized that Mota was happy to allow Durden to do so.
Christian Rodriguez: One of the first things to notice in the opening bout of the UFC Vegas 63 fight card was how relaxed Christian Rodriguez looked. The 24-year-old, who rose from featherweight following a loss on his UFC debut in February, was calm and composed throughout the fight. While Rodriguez has to work on his takedown defense, he showed off his technique, strength and fight IQ by scoring the anaconda choke that ended the fight after Joshua Weems took him down.
In addition to a new weight division, Rodriguez had a new gym – Fight Ready – for this contest.
Rodriguez’s win over Weems was a great rebound win.
Losers:
Calvin Kattar: Calvin Kattar gave his best, but a knee injury prevented him from continuing beyond the eight-second mark in the second round of his fight against Arnold Allen.
Tim means: Tim Means celebrated his 10th anniversary with the UFC in February. Means has had his ups and downs as a member of the UFC roster and his loss to Max Griffin put him on his third two-fight losing skid with the promotion, but he is still a viable contender and he never lost more than two fights. in a row.
Jared Vandera: I suspect the UFC appreciates Jared Vanderaa’s willingness to fight, but his loss to Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC Vegas 63 put him on a five-fight losing slip dating back to Oct. 9, 2021. It will be a surprised to see Vanderaa back inside the octagon.
Dan Miragliotta: Referee Dan Miragliotta screwed up during the Phil Hawes vs. Roman Dolidze fight. With Hawes injured by a leg lock, Miragliotta came between Hawes and Dolidze and in doing so seemed to indicate the fight was over through his body language and the fact that he had gotten his hands on Dolidze. However, Miragliotta allowed the fight to continue, which resulted in the elimination of a compromised Hawes.
Miragliotta had to stop this fight after deciding to get between the two men and touch the attacking fighter. There is no room for indecision in an MMA fight. Miragliotta should have made his first reaction, which seemed to be to stop the fight.
Phil Hawes corner: Phil Hawes’ corner kick kept their fighter going after he appeared to injure his knee against Roman Dolidze. I can’t find fault with Hawes trying to continue even though he was compromised. However, Hawes’ corner is supposed to be there to protect him if needed. They failed and Hawes suffered a bad loss by knockout because of their inaction.
Andrei Arlovski: Andrei Arlovski could have tied Jim Miller for most wins in UFC history with a win at UFC Vegas 63. That didn’t happen. Instead, Marcos Rogerio de Lima submitted the former UFC champion in the first stanza. The loss ended Arlovski’s four-game winning streak.
Chas Hooper: Chase Hooper was and is a one-round fighter and he didn’t get a chance to work that round at UFC Vegas 63 because he was too busy getting knocked down by Steve Garcia.
Hooper is a tough young man, but the UFC has done him a disservice by keeping him on the roster when he needs to work on his striking offense and defense.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, 23-year-old Hooper needs time to develop his batting skills. If the UFC cared about this young man as a potential future UFC fighter, it would keep him in a developmental deal and take him down a competitive level.
carlos mota: When Carlos Mota returns to the gym next week, the former LFA champion’s team will have to put him through takedown defense drills and work from the bottom up to get back on his feet.
The 27-year-old was far too comfortable fighting his guard and looking for submissions that weren’t there. It won’t work in MMA with the current scoring criteria.
Mota gave up four takedowns and gave up 12:32 of control time. He had a recorded submission attempt.
Joshua Weems: Joshua Weems took his match against Christian Rodriguez on short notice. He lost 3.5 pounds and looked overwhelmed in his submission loss to Rodriguez. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Weems was done with the UFC.
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