Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Petr Yan won the vacant bantamweight title with a victory over Jose Aldo at UFC 251.
Bantamweight flies to UFC 251 victory, belt
Petr Yan let a chance to finish Jose Aldo and win a world championship slip away late in the first round of their battle for the vacant UFC bantamweight title in Abu Dhabi early Sunday morning.
The Russian wasn’t about to let it happen again.
Yan knocked Aldo down early in the fifth and final round and rained down punches and elbows down the referee mercifully stepped in at the 3:24 mark of the first of three title fights on the UFC 251 card at so-called “Fight Island” in the United Arab Emirates capital.
In the co-main event, Alexander Volkanovski retained the featherweight title with a split-decision victo
ry over former champ Max Holloway.
Holloway found plenty of success early, taking the first two rounds and dropping Volkanovski in the second.
Volkanovski, who beat Holloway in a narrow decision to take the belt in December, rallied to take the final three rounds on two of the cards and retain the title.
“He made it tough for me in the early rounds, but I dug deep,” Volkanovski. “I knew it was 2-2 and I had to win the last one.”
The Review-Journal scored the bout 48-47 for Holloway.
Yan won his first six fights in the UFC and expected to challenge Henry Cejudo for the belt later this year until Cejudo vacated the belt and announced his retirement in May.
That left Yan to face Aldo, the longtime featherweight champion who was fighting at 135 pounds for just the second time.
Aldo looked strong early before he was dropped and hit with a body shot that had him grimacing and holding on until the final bell in the first round.
The former champ bounced back in the second round, but Yan’s work to the body started to pay off as the fight wore on and Aldo eventually succumbed to the onslaught.
“That was exactly how we planned it,” Yan said. “We wanted to put pressure on him and make him tired, then start attacking after the third round and that’s exactly what we did.”
Yan has now won 10 straight fights and could be looking at a matchup with top contender Aljamain Sterling unless Cejudo decides to return.
Also on the card, Rose Namajunas avenged a loss from May 2019 with a split-decision victory over Jessica Andrade in a battle of former women’s strawweight champions.
It was the first fight for Namajunas since losing her belt to Andrade when she was knocked out by a slam in their first meeting.
Namajunas banked the first two rounds in the rematch and held on through a wild flurry from Andrade in the final five minutes that shredded Namajunas’ face, but likely set her up for a shot at champion Weili Zhang.
“I was hoping to get that fight before the end of the year, but we’ll see how my nose is doing and go from there,” Namajunas said. “Early on in the fight, I was doing great. Then I think she hit the desperation button and started really unloading. She caught me a couple times, but I just stayed strong.”
Women’s flyweight star Paige VanZant’s contract came to an unceremonious end with a first-round submission loss to Amanda Ribas.
The rising Brazilian star secured a takedown from the clinch and locked in an armbar just 2:21 into the opening round of the first bout on the pay-per-view card.
VanZant, who has appeared on reality shows including “Dancing With the Stars” and has accumulated a massive social media following, is 5-4 in her UFC career with only one of those wins against a fighter with a winning record. The 26-year-old now has a decision to make about whether and where to continue her fighting career with so many options outside the cage.