For UFC 285 on Saturday night, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was once more graced with a crowd. With the vacant UFC heavyweight title on the line, Jon Jones’ thrilling heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane was the highlight of the thrilling night. As “Bones” made his third appearance in the octagon in as many years, four out of the five main-card fights were submitted.
While the “Bones” performance was completely surreal, the main event’s attractiveness was diminished by its briefness. In less than two minutes, the MMA G.O.A.T contender defeated ‘Bon Gamin, easily putting him to the ground and getting a guillotine submission.
In his post-fight interview, Jones singled out former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
In the evening’s co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko sought to defend her flyweight title against Alexa Grasso for the seventh time in a row. Shevchenko was initially stung by Grasso’s 1-2-3, but ‘Bullet’ quickly recovered to dominate the Mexican on the ground in later rounds.
In the fourth round, Grasso effectively blocked two of Shevchenko’s efforts to take him down before entirely changing the situation. After taking advantage of ‘Bullet’s’ failed spinning-back kick, Grasso successfully grabbed the champion’s back and applied a rear-naked choke. Although Shevchenko’s tap did not occur right away, it was only a matter of time given how strong the choke was. Grasso became the first Mexican woman athlete.
Shevchenko was the first combatant to submit and the UFC champion.
Shavkat Rakhmonov, a welterweight contender, made a name for himself by finishing Geoff Neal for the first time on the UFC 285 main card.
Mateusz Gamrot, a lightweight contender, recovered from a Beneil Dariush defeat by defeating a resurgent Jalin Turner in a split decision.
Bo Nickal won his UFC debut with a commanding first-round submission victory to open the main-card action.
UFC 285 full card results
Ciryl Gane is defeated by Jon Jones in guillotine submission (2:04 of Round 1)
V. Shevchenko is defeated by Alexa Grasso via submission (RNC) (4:34 of Round 4)
Geoff Neal is defeated by Shavkat Rakhmonov via submission (RNC) (4:17 of Round 3)
Jalin Turner gets defeated by Mateusz Gamrot in a split decision (29-28, 30-27, 28-29)
Jamie Pickett is defeated by Bo Nickal in an arm triangle (2:54 of Round 1)
Trevin Jones is defeated by Cody Garbrandt in a unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Derek Brunson is defeated by TKO by Dricus Du Plessis (4:59 of Round 2)
Viviane Araujo is defeated by Amanda Ribas in a unanimous decision (29-27, 30-26, 30-27)
Julian Marquez is defeated by Marc-Andre Barriault via KO (4:12 of Round 2)
Early prelims: Song Kenan loses to Ian Machado Garry via TKO (4:22 of Round 3)
Leomana Martinez is defeated by Cameron Saaiman in a majority vote (29-26, 28-27, 28-28)
Jessica Penne was defeated via submission (armbar) from Tabatha Ricci (2:14 of Round 2)
Da’Mon Blackshear is defeated by Farid Basharat in a unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Esteban Ribovics is defeated by Loik Radzhabov in a unanimous decision (29-28 x3)