UFC Vegas 83 went down last night (Sat., Dec. 9, 2023) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a Bantamweight main event that saw Song Yadong earn a dominant unanimous decision win over Chris Gutierrez. In the co-headlining act, Khalil Rountree scored a crushing knockout win over Anthony Smith to earn his fifth straight win (see it here).
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25148281/1844016561.jpg)
Biggest Winner: Khalil Rountree
If the Top 10 of the 205-pound division hadn’t taken notice of Khalil Rountree prior to last night, they definitely are now. The stout heavy-hitter scored a massive win over former light heavyweight title contender, Anthony Smith, by knocking him out rather viciously in the third and final round. In doing so, Rountree earned his fifth straight win — as well as another $50K post-fight bonus award — which will likely put him in the Top 10. Overall, this is undoubtedly the biggest win of his UFC career because it will set him up for bigger and better challenges moving forward. The sky is the limit for the man they call “The War Horse.” though I don’t expect him to get Alex Pereira next.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25148288/1843996662.jpg)
Runner (s) Up: Tim Elliott, Song Yadong
When opportunity knocks, it’s always best to answer the door, and that is just what Elliott did when he was called upon to face Su Mudaerji on short notice after Allan Nascimento bowed out of the event. In doing so, the scrappy lightweight scored a huge first-round submission win (arm-triangle choke) that not only put him back in the win column, but also earned him an extra $50,000 paycheck. It’s a nice bounce back victory for Elliott, who had won three straight prior to running into Muhammad Mokaev a few months ago, losing that fight via submission. Now that he moves to 3-1 over his last four outings Elliott could very well climb a spot or two in the rankings. As for Yadong, he gets on the list thanks to his dominate win over Gutierrez after dominating him for 25 minutes. Yadong has now won two straight and is 5-1 over his last six fights. There is no telling if his latest win will be good enough to put him into the Top 5, but the Chinese-born contender is making all the right moves to get him into position to be in the championship conversation.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25148284/1844007825.jpg)
Biggest Loser: Anthony Smith
Any far-fetched hopes of ever getting a fight against Alex Pereira went out the window for “Lionheart” after he fell victim to Rountree’s powerful strikes. I hate putting Smith on here because he did UFC a solid be stepping in under two week’s notice, but at the end of the day the loss is devastating nonetheless, especially in the manner in which he lost. All told, “Lionheart” is just 1-3 in his last four fights, which will take him out of the Top 10. There is no telling where Smith goes from here, but he will likely live to fight another day inside the Octagon. That said, another setback such as this one could force him to go into being an analyst full-time.
For complete UFC Vegas 83 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.