UFC Vegas 31: ‘Makhachev vs Moises’ | 6th Round Post-Fight Show

Zane Simon & Dayne Fox are here to breakdown this Saturday’s, July 17th, ‘UFC Vegas 31: Islam Makhachev vs. Thiago Moises’ event. The guys will have hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event.

Bloody Elbow fight experts, Zane Simon & Dayne Fox, are here tonight – Saturday, July 17th., 2021, to breakdown the UFC VEGAS 31: ‘Islam Makhachev vs. Thiago Moises’ Fight Night event, aka: UFC on ESPN 26, which was broadcast from the cozy confines of the APEX Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The guys will have hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event in the player above, or on our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel and BE Presents Podcast Network. (SPOILERS…)

Former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway and The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America Featherweight winner, Yair Rodríguez, were all lined up to excite as the event headliner. However, Holloway was pulled from the bout due to an injury. That match up is expected to remain intact and the bout will be rescheduled to a future event. So what we had here tonight was the substitute headliner between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moisés. For a fairly short notice bout, it was expected to be a good match up.

Well, the UFC showcased a banger of a Lightweight Bout tonight! The minus 700 favorite, Makhachev, excelled with Khabib in his corner and became the first man to take down Thiago Moises. In his first fight beyond three rounds he also became the 6th fighter in UFC Lightweight history to win eight or more consecutive fights, as his record now goes up to 20-1. Post-fight, Islam tells Felder, “You can run but you can’t hide. I’m coming. I’m here.” After which he calls for a bout with RDA next. In the post-fight show on ESPN+ he took the opportunity to also call out Michael Chandler, who was on announcers table at the event tonight.

A women’s Bantamweight bout between former Strikeforce and UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Miesha ‘Cupcake’ Tate and Marion ‘The Belizean Bruiser’ Reneau served as the event’s Co-Main Bout. It was Tate’s first fight since UFC 205, where she lost to former title challenger Raquel Pennington, via Unanimous Decision. She announced her retirement at the age of thirty afterwards, so her last bout was November, 2016.

Tate returned to the Octagon with a vengeance. ‘Cupcake’ was a beast. She put down Reneau (for the first time) with a flurry of strikes, punches and bloody elbows – after some calm and composed takedowns, she looked super comfortable on her feet, but vicious on the mat right up to the 1:53 mark of the third round, earning herself a POTN bonus. Reneau did not disappoint with her performance either, she was happy with the way she went out tonight.

Big announcements from both sides of the octagons post-fight: Tate exclaims she has checked a lot of things off the bucket list today and lets us know, “With all due respect, I’m not here just for a fight. I’m here for a belt.” So she is back to go after the title; but she was not yet ready to call anyone out by name. Reneau states she was glad to go out the way she did, having been a fan of Tate’s for a long time; while announcing this was her last fight, she is retired as of tonight.

Also on the card, we got the return of Jeremy ‘Lil’ Heathen’ Stephens, after his controversial shove to Drakkar Klose at UFC Vegas 24 back in April (which cancelled the bout on the day of the event, due to Klose sustaining a spinal injury as a result of that shove at the weigh-ins). Stephens was scheduled to face Mateusz Gamrot tonight.

Plus, a Featherweight bout was initially slated between Herbert Burns and Billy Quarantillo, but Burns had to cancel in early June due to a torn ACL, and was since replaced by Gabriel Benítez as Quarantillo’s opponent in the main card opener.

Notable Outcomes: Gamrot annihilated Stephens in short order with a wicked shoulder-shredding Kimura Submission at just 1:05 of the first round, which was bound to earn him a POTN bonus. Rodolfo Vieira and Dustin Stolzfus put on a bloody three round battle, which ended at the 11:54 mark of the bout – when Vieira subbed Stolzfus with a Rear Naked Choke’; for a minute there it looked like they were going to go the distance, they were fighting their hearts out. In another three round banger, Billy Quarantillo took the ‘W’ via punches from back control at 13:40 into his bout against Gabriel Benitez. Quarantillo looked terribly impressive in his performance tonight. FOTN right there.

In the featured prelim, Abubakar Nurmagomedov was scheduled to meet Daniel Rodriguez in a Welterweight bout. Nurmagomedov however, was forced to withdraw from the event due to an injury. Rodriguez was instead facing promotional newcomer Preston Parsons instead… as was predicted, the bout was over in just 2:47 with Punches delivered upon Parsons, ending his UFC debut in defeat.

For the opening prelim, we had a Heavyweight bout between Rodrigo Nascimento and Alan Baudot. Which was originally expected to take place at UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Garbrandt. However, they were rescheduled to this event after Baudot got injured, now it was part of our undercard tonight. Was Baudot fully recovered? It’s worth pondering, when you consider that he was eliminated by Nascimento via Punches (Standing TKO) at just 1:29 of the second round. POTN bonus to Nascimento.

This week the guys’ picks heading into the event were…

Both: Makhachev
Both: Tate
Zane: Stephens, Dayne: Gamrot
Both: Vieira
Both: Benitez
Both: Rodriguez
Both: Lemos
Both: Taha
Both: Johns Cancelled due to COVID-19 Protocols, dos Santos camp
Both: Figueiredo
Both: Nascimento

Overall, this now 10-bout card saw three exhilarating first round finishes, five impressive KO/TKO’s, three sweet submissions, and two decisions. *NOTE: The UFC issued SIX bonuses tonight… Rounding things out, bonuses for putting forth POTN efforts went to Rodrigo Nascimento, Miesha Tate, Mateusz Gamrot, Rodolfo Vieira; FOTN honors went to Gabriel Benitez vs. Billy Quarantillo. What a night of fights we have to share with you, join us to discuss all the action…

Here’s a look at the fight results & updated records for the ‘UFC VEGAS 31’ fight card:

ESPN/ESPN+ MAIN CARD
10. 155lbs: Islam Makhachev (20-1) DEF. Thiago Moises (15-5) – SUB, Rear Naked Choke at 2:38 of Rd 4 of 5, Total 17:38

9. 135lbs: Meisha Tate (19-7) DEF. Marion Reneau (9-8) – KO/TKO, G&P at 1:53 of Rd 2, Total 11:53

8. 155lbs: Mateusz Gamrot (19-1) DEF. Jeremy Stephens (28-19) – SUB, Kimura at 1:05 of Rd 1

7. 185lbs: Rodolfo Viera (8-1) DEF. Dustin Stolzfus (13-3) – SUB, Rear Naked Choke at 1:54 of Rd 3, Total 11:54

6. 145lbs: Billy Quarantillo (16-3) DEF. Gabriel Benitez (22-9) – KO/TKO, Punches from Back Control at 3:40 of Rd 3, Total 13:40

ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS
5. 170lbs: Daniel Rodriguez (15-2) DEF. Preston Parsons (9-3) – KO/TKO, Punches at 3:47 of Rd 1

4. 115lbs: Amanda Lemos (10-1) DEF. Montserrat Ruiz (10-2) – KO/TKO, Counter Right at 0:35 of Rd 1

3. 135lbs: Sergey Morozov (17-4) DEF. Khalid Taha (13-4) – DEC, Unanimous

2. 125lbs: Malcolm Gordon (13-5) DEF. Francisco Figueiredo (12-4) – DEC, Unanimous

1. 265lbs: Rodrigo Nascimento (9-1) DEF. Alan Baudot (8-3) – KO/TKO, Punches (Standing TKO) at 1:29 of Rd 2, Total 6:29

Be sure to follow Zane – @TheZaneSimon & Dayne – @TheDayneFox; and follow @BloodyElbow on twitter as well, for all the latest in MMA happenings. ‘Bloody Elbow Presents’ is a mixed martial arts podcast network presented to you by Bloody Elbow:

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