The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas played host to the traditional flagship fight card for the promotional leader but the event didn’t run as smoothly as it would suggest. Just a few hours before it was scheduled to begin, rumours began to circulate on social media that UFC Bantamweight champion and headliner, Amanda Nunes had been hospitalized and her fight with Valentina Shevchenko subsequently cancelled.
The annual event has now developed a recent history for fight cancellations with UFC 213 set to have both Cody Garbrandt vs. TJ Dillashaw and Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone on the card before both fights were cancelled due to injury with the latter being moved to UFC 214.
Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker were elevated to the main event slot with the interim middleweight title on the line. The Cuban Olympic wrestler’s takedown probably did enough to win the first round with the match being even on the feet whilst Whittaker appeared to injure his right foot.
The second round again went in favour of Romero, securing two takedowns and landing 93% of his strikes whilst Whittaker managed to land ten strikes. In the third round Whittaker began to pile the pressure on, mixing up his combinations in a round in which Romero seemed to use to conserve some energy.
The fourth round saw Romero secure the early takedown but not really do anything with it, with Whittaker beginning to outstrike Romero, mixing kicks with punches and leaving the Cuban looking tired, complacent and sloppy. The Australian began to stalk Romero around the octagon looking for the finish before the bell went. The fight was likely tied at two rounds each going into the final round.
Romero again looked exhausted and Whittaker outstruck Romero yet again, utilising the front kick to keep the Cuban at range, unable to get close to the Australian. Whittaker then managed to wind up on top of Romero and dropped elbows as well as transitioning into half guard which sealed winning the final three rounds to seal interim middleweight gold for Australia.
Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum competed in what was somewhat a chess match in a potential title eliminator in the heavyweight division. Overeem won the second round with Werdum comfortably winning the third round with the first round being so close, with just ten strikes landed proving so pivotal.
Rob Font opened the main card with a perfect performance, submitting Douglas Silva de Andrade with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
Oleksiy Oliynyk and Travis Browne ended the preliminary portion of the card with a back-and-forth first round in which both fighters were knocked down before Oliynyk showed his submission pedigree in the second round, sinking in a neck crank to submit Browne, who slides to four consecutive defeats in the heavyweight division.
They call him The Boa Constrictor for a reason. 🐍 #UFC213
Chad Laprise stopped Brian Camozzi in the third round with a stunning liver shot followed by strikes forcing the referee to end the bout. Thiago Santos stopped Gerald Meerschaert with some brutal ground and pound in the second round in a one-sided contest.
Belal Muhammad outpointed Jordan Mein, utilising the clinch to convince the judges to raise his hand whilst Cody Stamann put on a masterclass on his UFC debut against Terrion Ware with eight takedowns and landing over one hundred strikes. Trevin Giles also stopped James Bochnovic.
