UFC Vegas 101 went down last night (Sat., Jan 11. 2025) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a women’s Strawweight fight that saw Mackenzie Dern defeat Amanda Ribas via third round submission (see it again here). In the co-headlining act, Santiago Ponzinibbio shook off some early rust en route to defeating Carlston Harris via technical knockout in the third and final round (relive it here).
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Biggest Winner: Mackenzie Dern
Dern gets the top spot this week after securing her first back-to-back win streak in nearly four years thanks to a slick submission win over Ribas. In the process, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace exacted her much-desired revenge against the the first-ever woman to defeat her (with an asterisk). Now, Dern could be looking at a spot in the Top 5 for the first time in her UFC career and will use this momentum to hopefully work her way to a title shot sooner rather than later.
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Runners Up: Cesar Almeida, Punahele Soriano
Almeida scored a ridiculous knockout victory over Abdul Razak Alhassan in the first round, setting the standard for all knockouts moving forward in 2025 (watch highlights). More important, however, “Cesinha” improved his record 7-1 (3-1 UFC). A few more wins like that and he could be looking at a spot in the Top 15. As for Soriano, he gets the nod here thanks to his impressive 31-second knockout win over Uros Medic, marking his second straight win inside the Octagon. The only downside is that he didn’t get a $50,000 post-fight bonus check.
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Biggest Losers: Abdul Razak Alhassan, Ihor Potieria
Alhassan and Potieria will share this slot because both men are struggling bad. With Alhassan losing to Almeida, he drops to 2-6-1 inside the Octagon in his last nine fights. As for Potieria, he has now lost three straight fights, five of his last six and is 2-6 in his eight fights under UFC’s banner. Thanks to their losses and their overall struggles within the promotion, both of these men could be under the microscope during UFC’s next round of roster cuts.
For complete UFC Vegas 101 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.