UFC Vegas 58 went down last night (Sat., July 9, 2022) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a main event bout that saw Rafael Fiziev pick up a big win over Rafael dos Anjos after 20 minutes of back-and-forth action, ultimately knocking out “RDA” in the opening moments of the fifth round (see it here). In the co-main event, Caio Borralho picked up his ninth straight win after earning a unanimous decision victory over Armen Petrosyan.
Biggest Winner: Rafael Fiziev
It was looking a bit dicey there for Fiziev, but he managed score a knockout win over dos Anjos late into their Lightweight scrap. “RDA” seemed to be finding his groove in the championships rounds, with the long-time veteran looking like the fresher fighter of the two. Fiziev, meanwhile, looked a bit winded and seemingly needed a finish. And he got just that, picking up the pace in the opening moments of the final frame, clipping dos Anjos with a sneaky left hook that dropped him. He immediately followed up with a huge hammerfist that prompted the official on duty to stop the fight, which seemed a bit early to most. Nevertheless, Fiziev should climb up the rankings after earning his sixth straight win inside the Octagon, which could lead to a bigger fight in his next outing.
Runner Up: Chase Sherman
Yes, we could have gone with Said Nurmagomedov — who scored his third straight win after dominating Douglas Silva de Andrade for 15 minutes — and Aeimann Zahabi for his win over Ricky Turcios, but we are going with “Vanilla Gorilla” after his knockout win over Jared Vanderaa because he basically saved his UFC career. Indeed, coming into the event, Sherman had lost four straight fights, two via first-round submission. Another loss would have likely meant he would be handed his pink slip in the coming weeks. In the end, Sherman overwhelmed Vanderaa in the third round with a flurry of strikes to earn a technical knockout win, and an extra $50,000 for “Performance of the Night” in the process.
Biggest Loser: Jared Vanderaa
Vanderaa’s run inside the Octagon has been anything but stellar. In fact, it’s be downright horrible. After suffering a technical knockout loss at the hands of Sergey Spivak in his debut in Feb. 2021, he turned things around in his sophomore effort by picking up a unanimous decision win over Justin Tafa. After that, things went downhill in a hurry, losing three straight fights to Alexander Romanov via technical knockout, Andrei Arlovksi via split decision and was submitted by Aleksei Oleinik. And things didn’t get any better for him against Chase Sherman in “Sin City” after he was the recipient of a 20-punch combination that put him out for the count, sending him home with his fourth straight loss … and perhaps out of the promotion.
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