UFC 320 took place this past weekend and there are lots of takeaways from the event. In the headliner, future hall-of-famer Alex Pereira regained the Light Heavyweight Championship from Magomed Ankalaev by knockout in the first round.
Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvilli also continued his incredible win streak with an impressive decision over Cory Sandhagen, and in the feature main card bout, Jiri Prochazka won an insane war against Khalil Rountree Jr. by third round knockout. Despite these incredible highlights, the entire card is worth taking a look at.
Across the board, UFC 320 was a seemingly generational event with huge performances from top to bottom. The early prelims, while being relatively uneventful, featured some good fights between Women’s Bantamweights Macy Chiasson and Yana Santos, where the latter took a decision victory, as well as a third straight finish win for Ramiz Brahimaj.
The prelims were great, especially the first round finishes for the deceivingly young Edmen Shabazyan and surging Middleweight prospect Ateba Gautier. Gautier, in particular, has looked sensational in his first three UFC bouts. While it could be due to a lack of good competition, he has looked like one of the scariest prospects in the promotion’s history due to his devastating knockout power.
Daniel Santos and JooSang Woo also had a great scrap in probably my favorite fight of the prelims. While Woo looked very solid on his feet, continuously taunting Santos while landing good counters, he got his receipt when he was finished in the second round by the Brazilian.
Perhaps the preliminary bout that has gotten the most attention was the bout between former Bellator superstar Patchy Mix and the debuting Jakub Wiklacz. One of the highest-profile free agent signings in recent UFC history, Patchy Mix, had huge expectations in the promotion’s Bantamweight division. Despite these expectations, Mix has been incredibly disappointing, and there is no greater proof of that than this fight.
In hindsight, even though he looked awful in the fight, losing to Mario Bautista is excusable. He has proved to belong in the top ten of the division. However, when the UFC handed Mix a fight that was supposed to be a layup, he was even more disappointing than his terrible performance at UFC 316.
Mix looked incredibly sloppy on his feet, and even on the ground, which is supposed to be his bread and butter; he let a UFC debutant hold his own and win position battles. His cardio was also a problem, which is shocking considering he often went five rounds in Bellator.
While the prelims were solid, the main card was among the best in recent memory. To open, Joe Pyfer got yet another win over an unranked fighter, this time being Abus Magomedov. Magomedov definitely won the first round, but after Pyfer dropped him in the second, he locked in a rear-naked choke on the ground for his third straight win.
Fans are confident that Pyfer will be ranked following this win. If not, the UFC is almost surely going to give him a top ten opponent because they love him so much. Although not super confident in his ability. He obviously has power, but many doubt if he has the skill to be a mainstay in the top ten like everyone seems to think he could be.
The following “fight” between Youssef Zalal and Josh Emmett was a gigantic disappointment, but it was quick, so it does not have much of an effect on the card. Zalal garnered lots of hate for his last performance against Calvin Katter, a fight where he easily won the first two rounds and ran around for a majority of the third.
Josh Emmett is one of the hardest-hitting Featherweights the world has ever seen. Despite his otherworldly power, sometimes he is so tentative it hurts to watch. If he just lets his hands go, he could genuinely win every single fight. However, he is maybe the most inconsistent fighter in the division.
The potential of this fight was very high, as the UFC matched up a fighter nobody likes in Zalal against a monster of a 145-pound human in Emmett, yet the outcome was very anticlimactic. Zalal snatched up an armbar at the very beginning of the fight, forcing a verbal tap. The crowd’s reaction? Nothing. Even when the replay was shown, the crowd did not react in the slightest.
While it is an impressive win for the surging Zalal, he is far from exciting. It is always nice to have new contenders, and there are some interesting matchups you can do for him, such as Aljamain Sterling or Arnold Allen.
The feature main card bout was a war of attrition. The showdown between perennial Light Heavyweight contender Jiri Prochazka and the refined top contender Khalil Rountree stole the show as expected. A fight of the night is expected whenever the two fight, and now that both are at the top of the division, it only makes sense to pit them against each other.
Rountree looked very sharp, winning the first two rounds without taking any substantial damage. His range control and sharp Muay Thai skills were the factors in the first two rounds, but Rountree made a mistake by getting into too many exchanges at the end of the second. Prochazka smelled blood in the water at the beginning of the third. Sensing he needed a finish, Prochazka threw absolutely everything he had at Rountree, hitting him with just about every strike a human being could throw.
Rountree was gassed out, and with a short left hook against the cage, he would collapse to the canvas, Prochazka the victor yet again. In yet another banger, Jiri Prochazka would once again come back and win a fight he was losing, as he seems to do very often. With Pereira already defeating Prochazka twice, a matchup with Carlos Ulberg seems likely, but his dream of being a two-time Light Heavyweight Champion seems even more inevitable.
In the co-main event, the best fighter of 2025, the Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili, would defend his title against the always game Cory Sandhagen. Following Merab’s submission, Sean O’Malley, at UFC 316 and his incredible war against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, Merab was already being called fighter of the year.
Merab has looked unstoppable all year, so many people expected his alien-like cardio and aggressive wrestling game to dominate Cory Sandhagen. That sentiment was half-right. Sandhagen started the fight excellently. As a matter of fact, Sandhagen laid out the blueprints for how to beat Merab; he just was not the guy to do it. Sandhagen began the fight with good range control, not allowing Merab to come close to him.
While Sandhagen won the first round, the last four would be very difficult for him. Sandhagen is known for his very accurate and high-paced striking, so for him to get knocked down and outstruck by Merab says a lot about the champion. Merab whalloped Sandhagen with a long flurry of punches, a sequence probably two or three punches away from stopping the fight.
Sandhagen survived, but he would not see the success he saw in the first round again. Merab won a 49-45 decision, via the 10-8 round in round two. The fight unfolded just like how people thought it was, excluding the first round. Merab dominated yet again, and it seems as if the UFC is going to give him Petr Yan next, but he may need a break for a while.
The main event honestly did not feel real. 2024 was the year of Alex Pereira. With three title defenses in the calendar year, it seemed like no one could beat him. Magomed Ankalaev was assumed to be a tough matchup due to his grappling advantage. In their first fight in March, the fight was somewhat boring, but Ankalaev’s grappling was neutralized, and he outstruck Alex.
Going into the rematch, Pereira claimed he was injured in their first encounter, and while Ankalaev denied it, Pereira promised to be a completely different fighter. We certainly got a different fighter.
From the opening bell, Pereira’s pressure was noticeable. He instantly backed Ankalaev up against the cage, throwing smart and accurate strikes. Pereira would hurt the champion with a vicious calf kick, making him switch stances, causing Ankalaev to seem awkward. Shortly after, Pereira would bomb an overhand, hurting Ankalaev and causing him to shoot a panic takedown.
Alex would easily reverse the takedown, ending up on top on the ground, throwing a barrage of ground and pound, regaining his Light Heavyweight title. Alex would signal a possible move to Heavyweight after the fight, but for now, he is once again the champion of the 205-pound division, saving it in the process.
UFC 320 was a great card, seeing a title change, great fights throughout, and great finishes in front of a hot crowd. With it being such an eventful card, it is easy to forget that there is another great event like this very month. The UFC has been on fire lately, and this card was a representation of that.
