UFC Vegas 43 went down last night (Sat., Nov. 20, 2021) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas Nevada, with Ketlen Vieira defeating Miesha Tate via unanimous decision (see it again here) in the ESPN+-streamed main event. In the co-headlining act, Sean Brady picked up a big win over Michael Chiesa to extend his win streak to 15 in a row.
Biggest Winner: Sean Brady
Ranked No. 14 in the stacked Welterweight division at the moment, Brady can find himself in the Top 10 following his huge win over Chiesa, who is/was sitting pretty at No. 6. The win over “Maverick” is undoubtedly the biggest of Brady’s career, who improves to 15-0, 5-0 UFC. Now, Brady will be eying bigger challenges moving forward on his quest to being one of the best overall athletes on UFC’s roster. While guys like Khamzat Chimaev are getting all the buzz, and rightfully so, Brady is slowly and quietly proving to be a big threat at 170 pounds.
Runner (s) Up: Ketlen Vieira and Taila Santos
There were a lot of great performances last night such as Adrian Yanez’s win over Davey Grant and Rani Yahya’s comeback win over Kyun Ho Kang, but Vieira and Santos get the nods here because their respective wins over Miesha Tate and Joanne Wood could prove to be big steps moving ahead toward their goals of fighting for the titles. Vieira dominated former Bantamweight champion, Tate, in the main event to bounce back after a tough loss to Yana Kunitskaya, just the second defeat of her combat career. The win could be enough to move her into the Top 5. As for Santos, she scored the only finish of the night by submitting Wood — which earned her a $50,000 post-fight bonus. Ranked No. 10, Santos will climb the rankings come next week after extending her win streak to four.
Biggest Loser: Michael Chiesa
Tate coming up short in the headlining bout was a tough defeat, but we have to go with Chiesa here for the simple fact that “Maverick” is on a downward trajectory after suffering his second straight loss. His current funk comes on the heels of an impressive four-fight win streak, which earned him the No. 6 spot at 170 pounds. Prior to his most recent defeat at the hands of Sean Brady, Chiesa was choked out by Vicente Luque. His back-to-back defeats are his first consecutive losses in five years, so he knows a thing or two about bouncing back. That being said, he will go into his next matchup with a ton of pressure on his shoulders trying to avoid a three fight losing streak, which could be disastrous for his hopes of getting to his first-ever title fight.
For complete UFC Vegas 43 results and coverage click here.