Natalia Silva won the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title by unanimous decision over Wang Cong at UFC 332 on Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. As of about 1:03 PM EDT Sunday, by our count from the UFC.com results page, 11 of the card’s 14 bouts ended in KO or TKO, and ESPN calls that a UFC record.
What happened in the main event
UFC.com lists the title bout as a unanimous decision after five rounds, ending at 5:00 of round 5. ESPN’s scores were 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 for Silva. ESPN puts Silva’s record at 21-5-1 and Wang’s at 10-2. ESPN says Silva “cruised” to the decision with “a dominant showing,” and that former champion Valentina Shevchenko vacated the belt because of an undisclosed injury in September. ESPN also notes that Silva is ranked No. 9 on its MMA 30 under 30 list.
ESPN Fight Center’s stat table gives Silva 109 of 216 significant strikes to Wang’s 98 of 206, while Wang led total strikes, 147 of 259 to 133 of 240. By target, the table lists Silva with 64 of 155 to the head, 28 of 39 to the body and 17 of 22 to the legs. Wang is listed at 45 of 119, 19 of 31 and 34 of 56. Silva scored one knockdown to none, went 3 of 5 on takedowns to Wang’s 0 of 0, and held control for 4:12 to 2:39. Neither fighter is listed with a submission attempt.
ESPN reports Wang threatened Silva in the final round with power shots, including a left hook that appeared to have stunned her, but Silva “survived and ran away on the scorecards.”
The records
ESPN research says the 11 knockouts set the single-card UFC record, topping the previous record of nine, and that the card also holds the record for most first-round knockouts, with nine. ESPN adds that Roman Kopylov’s finish was the seventh first-round finish of the night and tied the UFC record for most first-round knockouts on a single card “with four fights still to come.” Cageside Press says the nine first-round knockouts and eleven overall “set modern era records for the promotion.” The two outlets word the records differently, and we have not independently checked either claim against UFC records.
Our own count from the UFC.com results page: 14 bouts, 11 ended in KO or TKO, three went to unanimous decision (Silva-Wang, Soldic-Williams and Naurdiev-Vettori), and nine ended in round 1. One bout ended in round 2, three in round 3 (Soldic-Williams, Naurdiev-Vettori and Nolan-McGee) and the title fight in round 5.
Every result, from UFC.com
Winner listed first. Method is KO/TKO unless noted.
Main card:
- Women’s flyweight title: Natalia Silva def. Wang Cong, unanimous decision, round 5, 5:00.
- Bantamweight: Payton Talbott def. Deiveson Figueiredo, round 1, 2:09.
- Lightweight: Esteban Ribovics def. King Green, round 1, 4:08.
- Welterweight: Roberto Soldic def. Khaos Williams, unanimous decision, round 3, 5:00.
- Middleweight: Roman Kopylov def. Ateba Gautier, round 1, 3:12.
Prelims:
- Flyweight: Imanol Rodriguez def. Alden Coria, round 1, 3:11.
- Middleweight: Damian Pinas def. Andrey Pulyaev, round 1, 1:15.
- Featherweight: Marcus McGhee def. Anthony Romero, round 1, 4:58.
- Heavyweight: Anthony Wint def. Lucas Armand, round 1, 0:23.
Early prelims:
- Heavyweight: Johnny Walker def. Mick Parkin, round 1, 3:35.
- Welterweight: Jacobe Smith def. Bruce Whitehead, round 1, 1:32.
- Lightweight: Alexander Hernandez def. Rafael dos Anjos, round 2, 3:12.
- Middleweight: Ismail Naurdiev def. Marvin Vettori, unanimous decision, round 3, 5:00.
- Welterweight: Eric Nolan def. Court McGee, round 3, 3:26.
Notable results, as ESPN reports them
In the co-main event, ESPN says Talbott knocked Figueiredo down with a straight right hand 30 seconds in, and again later, before referee Jason Herzog stopped it at 2:09 of round 1. It was Talbott’s third win in a row and his second straight over an ex-champion, ESPN says.
Ribovics, of Argentina, stopped King Green at 4:08 of round 1 after three consecutive knockdowns. Referee Herb Dean stopped it “even though Green was conscious and initially protested,” ESPN says. Green, 40, saw a four-fight win streak snapped. ESPN says Ribovics was overweight by half a pound and had to forgo 20 percent of his purse.
Roberto Soldic, 31, of Croatia, beat Khaos Williams by unanimous decision in his UFC debut after signing in September. ESPN says he “was dropped twice in the first frame before taking over the fight in the second and third rounds.”
Kopylov, of Russia, knocked out Gautier, 24, of Cameroon, with a right hook at 3:12 of round 1, ESPN reports, ending Gautier’s 10-fight winning streak. ESPN says Gautier had come in having knocked out all five of his previous UFC opponents, three of them in the opening round.
Rodriguez, 26, of Mexico, who ESPN lists as 8-0, finished Coria with a front kick to the midsection at 3:11 of round 1. ESPN describes the card’s run as “a first in modern UFC history: six consecutive first-round knockouts.”
Pinas, 24, knocked out Pulyaev with a right uppercut, ESPN says, and has made three Octagon appearances this year, winning each by first-round knockout. McGhee, 36, of Phoenix, who typically competes at bantamweight, had lost his original opponent midweek and moved up a weight class to stay on the card, ESPN says. He finished Romero, a UFC newcomer who replaced an injured Bernardo Sopaj, at 4:58 of round 1. Wint finished Armand in 23 seconds, per ESPN, which matches the 0:23 on UFC.com.
The card opened with the end of a career. Court McGee retired after losing to Eric Nolan by third-round KO/TKO, ESPN reports; ESPN says he won Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter. Yahoo Sports reports that McGee, 41, had announced beforehand that this would be his retirement bout.
Bonuses, attendance and gate
Cageside Press wrote: “With that many finishes, there was no Fight of the Night awarded in Salt Lake City.” Four fighters received $100,000 Performance of the Night bonuses: Johnny Walker, Damian Pinas, Imanol Rodriguez and Roman Kopylov. Yahoo Sports lists the same four.
Cageside says Walker made his heavyweight debut with a knockout of Mick Parkin, felled by a jump knee followed by a knee in the clinch. It says Pinas scored for a “violent knockout” of Pulyaev, Rodriguez cashed in after putting away Coria with a body kick and follow-up punches, and Kopylov upset Gautier with a knockout to open the main card.
Finish bonuses of $25,000 went to several fighters. Cageside names Payton Talbott, Esteban Ribovics, Marcus McGhee, Anthony Wint, Jacobe Smith, Alexander Hernandez and Eric Nolan. Yahoo Sports’ heading names Talbott, McGhee, Smith, Hernandez and Nolan, its text covers Wint’s finish, and it says Ribovics was ineligible for a bonus because he missed weight. Cageside’s list included Ribovics; we take Yahoo’s account, which matches ESPN’s report of his weight miss and forfeited purse.
Announcing the bonuses, UFC President and CEO Dana White said, as Cageside quotes him: “If you look at the finishes, Damian won by a vicious knockout, and he broke his jaw. Walker, incredible. Kopylov was a huge underdog.” Cageside does not specify whose jaw, and no other source we read does. White also said: “When you really look at how they finish, they make sense.”
Cageside lists attendance at the Delta Center at 16,492, for a gate of $2.7 million.
What we did not find
We did not find a medical-suspension list for the card or an announced next opponent for Silva. We found no other bonus awards beyond those Cageside and Yahoo Sports report.