(Photo credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images)
Featherweight Steve Garcia made a statement Saturday night in the main event of UFC Vegas 110 with his 15th KO/TKO win at the expense of David Onama at 3:34 of Round 1. New Mexico's Garcia (19-5 MMA) is already eying his next victim, which is none other than 'BMF' champion Max Holloway (27-8 MMA).
'I want the Rocky Balboa story,' Garcia said after the win. 'I want the one with Max Holloway and the 'BMF' title. I want that 'BMF' Max Holloway champion (next).'
Uganda's Onama (14-3 MMA) had won his previous four fights, losing for the first time since August 2022.
The co-headliner at heavyweight didn't end without controversy. In a near-repeat of UFC 321's main event, Tom Aspinall's teammate, Ante Delija (26-7 MMA), invertedly eye-poked Waldo Cortes-Acosta midway through Round 1 on the verge of a would-be TKO win. Instead, Cortez-Acosta's vision improved after being given five minutes of recovery time, and he turned the tables on Delija with a TKO win of his own.
Cortez-Acosta (15-2 MMA) had a message for Aspinall.
'I'm coming for you,' Cortez-Acosta said post-fight.
Delija suffered his first UFC loss.
In welterweight action, Jeremiah Wells' ground-and-pound in Round 3 sealed a unanimous decision win against Themba Gorimbo, as all three judges scored the fight 29-28-29-28-29. Wells (13-4-1 MMA) snapped a two-fight losing skid, while Gorimbo (14-6 MMA) has dropped back-to-back fights following a four-fight winning streak between May 2023 and last October.
The finishes kept coming, but this time, a bit faster and furious. In just under a round, Yadier del Valle made quick work of Isaac Dulgarian to secure a rear-naked choke to remain unbeaten. Del Valle (10-0 MMA) now has four submission wins, capping his year with consecutive rear-naked-choke victories. Meanwhile, Dulgarian (7-2 MMA) has split his last four fights, having not won consecutively since 2021-2022.
Chicago's Charles Radtke took the judges out of the equation with a third-round rear-naked choke against Daniel Frunza at welterweight. Radtke (11-5 MMA) is now 4-2 through his first six UFC outings, as Frunza (9-4 MMA) remains winless in the promotion.
UFC Vegas 110 kicked off in style with flyweight Allan Nascimento securing a second-round anaconda submission against Cody Durden. Nascimento (22-6 MMA) has now won four in a row, while Durden (17-9-1 MMA) has lost three in a row and four of his last five.
--Field Level Media
