Yadong Song Left Hook Stops Ricky Simon at UFC Fight Night 223

Yadong Song punched his way back into the title discussion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

In the main event of UFC Fight Night 223 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, the “Kung Fu Kid” stifled the vaunted wrestling of Ricky Simon and outstruck him in increasingly one-sided fashion for four rounds before putting things away with a blistering left hook early in Round 5. The first round found Simon largely neglecting his customary barrage of takedowns, and Song stuffed the few that did come his way, setting the tone for the remainder of the fight. Song found increasing success with his boxing as the fight went on, catching Simon cleanly on numerous occasions, though what appeared to be a knockdown by Song early in the second round turned out to have been caused by an inadvertent clash of heads. A second headbutt in Round 3 drew a protest from Simon, as both collisions had occurred while Song lunged forward with his head down. Nonetheless, Song was already very much in the driver’s seat when he dropped Simon with a left hook in the waning seconds of Round 4. The horn sounded before Song could follow up, but Simon was clearly in trouble. The job that Song had begun with a left hook in Round 4, he finished with another one in Round 5: Simon was caught cleanly once again, fell to his seat, and this time there was no bell to save the American. A stream of unanswered punches on the ground prompted referee Herb Dean to stop the beating at 1:10 of the final stanza. The win brought Song’s Octagon record to 9-2-1 and put his loss to Cory Sandhagen on a gruesome cut last September in the rear view; Simon’s UFC record fell to 8-3 with the loss, which snapped a five-fight win streak.

Borralho Throttles Oleksiejczuk

Caio Borralho has become impossible to ignore in the UFC middleweight division.

In the co-main event of “UFC Vegas 72,” Borralho (14-1, 1 NC) put a round and a half of increasingly dominant work on Michal Oleksiejczuk (18-6, 1 NC) before finishing things with a tight rear-naked choke. “The Natural” experienced some adversity early, as Oleksiejczuk landed some solid blows and withstood Borralho’s first couple of takedown attempts. However, once Borralho secured his first takedown late in the round, his size, strength and vastly superior grappling took over. Round 1 ended with Borralho overwhelming Oleksiejczuk’s defenses on the ground, and the second began right where the first left off. Borralho took Oleksiejczuk down with a double-leg, returned him to the canvas after he stood back up near the fence and then punished him with punches and elbows while advancing to back mount and securing a body triangle. From there, Borralho cinched up a rear-naked choke, eliciting the tap from “Hussar” at 2:29 of Round 2. The dominant win extended the 30-year-old Brazilian’s unbeaten streak to 14 straight bouts, including his pair of appearances on Dana White's Contender Series in 2021 and his first four UFC bouts. Oleksiejczuk fell to 6-4 with one no contest in the Octagon, and 2-1 since moving from light heavyweight to middleweight.

Vieira Weathers Storm, Strangles Brundage

He had to march through all kinds of hell to get there, but Rodolfo Vieira put himself back in the win column with a second-round submission win over Cody Brundage in the middleweight feature bout. “The Black Belt Hunter” was close to being finished in the first round, as Brundage lit him up with punches early, opening a serious cut, then sprawled on a desperation single-leg takedown attempt. After a timeout for an inadvertent groin foul broke up a clinch exchange, Brundage dropped Vieira with a big overhand right and sprawled on another takedown attempt, punishing the Brazilian with punches from a stalled position. Vieira recovered and finally secured a takedown in the final minute and did enough damage to forestall a 10-8 round, but the frame still belonged to the American. The second round opened with a takedown attempt by Vieira, which Brundage elected to counter with a guillotine choke attempt. From there it was all Vieira, who extricated his head from the choke, threatened with an arm triangle and briefly took Brundage’s back before finishing with the head-and-arm choke from top position. The tap came at 1:28 of Round 2, bringing Vieira’s UFC record to 4-2 and allowing him to bounce back from a decision loss to Chris Curtis in his last Octagon appearance. Brundage’s loss dropped his UFC record to 2-3.

Padilla Blows Up Erosa

In what was becoming a theme for “UFC Vegas 72,” a debuting fighter came through big, as Fernando Padilla (15-4) detonated Julian Erosa (28-11) with a pinpoint salvo of punches in the first round. After a few tentative early exchanges by the rangy 6-foot, 1-inch featherweights, Padilla stung Erosa with a salvo of punches, tagging him with deadly accuracy as he went careening across the cage. A right hand hurt “Juicy J” badly, and a second one dropped him. Erosa stood back up, but referee Chris Tognoni was already interposing himself for the stoppage. Erosa protested immediately, and may have had a point, but the result went down as a TKO at 1:41 of the first round for the young Mexican, whose UFC debut had to wait nearly two years as he resolved visa issues. Erosa’s record fell to 6-7 across three separate stints with the promotion, 5-4 since his most recent return in 2020.

De Lima Defeats Cortes-Acosta

Marcos Rogerio de Lima (21-8-1) used a brutal stream of leg kicks and a couple of opportunistic takedowns to earn a unanimous decision over Waldo Cortes-Acosta (9-1) in their main card heavyweight showcase. For a time, it seemed unlikely that the judges’ services would be needed, as de Lima’s low kicks scored early and often, leaving Cortes-Acosta’s left leg visibly damaged and compromised in function. A big double-leg takedown led to a solid ground sequence by de Lima, but may have been counterproductive, since it gave Cortes-Acosta a reprieve from the kicking assault. The second round was a near repeat of the first, including the late takedown, and “Pezao” appeared to be very much in control of the fight as the final frame began. That would be Cortes-Acosta’s best round, however; his jab landed with increasing regularity and force as the leg kicks dried up for de Lima. The Dominican did enough to win the frame, but it would not be enough to sway the outcome of the fight, as de Lima collected 29-28 scores from all three judges. The win, de Lima’s third straight, elevated his Octagon record to 10-6, 6-3 at heavyweight; Cortes-Acosta’s first professional loss dropped his tally in the promotion to 2-1.

Waters Pieces Up Quinlan

Stepping up on a week’s notice and just 15 days after winning the vacant Legacy Fighting Alliance welterweight title, Trey Waters (8-1) put in three rounds’ worth of dominant work against Josh Quinlan (6-1). The 6-foot-5 Waters cuts a rare figure at 170 pounds and put his massive advantages in height and reach to good use, frustrating his fellow LFA alum’s attempts to get into range and busting him up with punches. Aside from a takedown and brief ground sequence in Round 1, Waters appeared to win every minute of the fight. Quinlan was game throughout, coming forward and looking to land the big left hand with which he had hurt virtually all his professional opponents, but simply had no answers. By the end of Round 3, Quinlan’s face was swollen and bleeding, and after a fight-sealing late takedown by Waters, the 30-27 scorecards were a mere formality. The one-sided win marked a successful debut for the towering Waters, while Quinlan fell to 1-1 in the UFC with his first professional loss.

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