Sean OMalley hits Kris Moutinho during their UFC 264 bantamweight bout at T-Mobile Arena Saturday, July 10, 2021.
Published Saturday, July 10, 2021 | 7 p.m.
Updated 30 minutes ago
Note: Full results from the preliminary card available at the bottom of the page.
Tai Tuivasa vs. Greg Hardy
The heavyweight firefight lived up to the billing. It just didn’t last long. First, Hardy rocked Tuivasa and went in for the finish. But Tuivasa countered and sent Hardy down to the floor. For a moment, it appeared Hardy was out cold but the referee let the fight go on until the former Dallas Cowboy wasn’t defending himself from ground-and-pound. Tuivasa wins via TKO at 1:05 of the first round.
Irene Aldana vs. Yana Kunitskaya
Make it two straight TKOs to start the main card. Aldana dispatched Kunitskaya a lot easier than O’Malley did Moutinho — and a lot faster. Aldana rocked Kunitskaya with a right hand late in the first round, and followed up with ground-and-pound before the referee stepped in. The official time of Aldana’s victory goes down as 4:35 of the first round.
Sean O’Malley vs. Kris Moutinho
O’Malley and Moutinho traded haymakers in a crowd-pleasing fight that ended in a controversial stoppage. O’Malley was landing way more shots, and to much greater effect, but Moutinho refused to go down throughout nearly the entire 15-minute duration. He was only undone when referee Herb Dean had seen enough, making the rare move to call the fight with Moutinho still on his feet. Moutinho protested and the crowd, which was already up for a standing ovation, greatly protested. But it will officially go down as a TKO victory at 4:33 of the third round for O’Malley over Moutinho.
Pre-main card
They say the mental aspect is one of the most challenging parts of the fight game, and there are questions in that area for both of the men headlining UFC 264 at T-Mobile Arena.
In a main event as close as the pick’em fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor, mindset might be as important as any physical gameplan in determining who breaks the tie and wins the trilogy in the third fight. Poirier and McGregor are expected to walk to the octagon at around 9:15 p.m. tonight following 11 other fights in the UFC’s first event with fans in its hometown since March 2020.
Mentality concerns are much more at the forefront with McGregor, as UFC President Dana White is among the many wondering about the fighter’s motivation level after making hundreds of millions of dollars the last several years. McGregor has fought in the octagon only three times since becoming the UFC’s first dual-division champion, going 1-2 including a second-round TKO loss to Poirier in January.
McGregor says he’s focused and as hungry as ever, but the onus is now on him to prove it.
Poirier has been open about his mental struggles in the past, but says he’s past them now and in a good place as he looks to beat McGregor in back-to-back bouts. By Poirier’s own admission, McGregor got into his head in 2014 as the former champion’s renowned mental warfare contributed to a first-round knockout loss.
Poirier kept his cool ahead of UFC 257 in January, and got the result he wanted to show for it. But there were some key differences between that event and tonight’s — Namely, the lack of fans and trash talk.
McGregor treated Poirier respectfully going into their second fight, but has since gotten back to taunting him and even brought his wife, Jolie Poirier, into the trash talk this time around. The sold-out T-Mobile Arena crowd is also expected to be partial to the more-popular McGregor.
A number of Irish flags were already inside at the start of the first fight around 3:30 p.m.
Poirier says none of that bothers him anymore, but he did appear to be uncomfortable at times during a tense news conference in the building Thursday afternoon.
This is the rare UFC pay-per-view with no championships on the line, but the winner of Poirier vs. McGregor III will claim a lightweight title shot as could Stephen Thompson in the welterweight division if he beats Gilbert Burns in the co-main event.
Stay tuned for updates from the main card and read below for full results from the undercard.
· Max Griffin defeated Carlos Condit by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in a welterweight bout to finish off the preliminary card.
· In what was likely the Fight of the Night, Michel Pereira engaged in a welterweight slugfest against Niko Price and escaped with a unanimous-decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
· Ilia Topuria knocked out Ryan Hall at 4:46 of the first round in their featherweight bout.
· Dricus Du Plessis rag-dolled Trevin Giles throughout their middleweight bout, ultimately getting the finish via knockout at 1:41 of the second round. Du Plessis demanded fans “remember his name” and predicted he would soon be ranked in the top 10 after the victory, and his performance left no reason to disagree.
·Jennifer Maia edged Jessica Edge via controversial unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) in a women’s flyweight bout. It was a close, back-and-forth battle but the judges may have been unduly influenced by a huge cut on Eye’s forehead caused by an inadvertent headbutt.
· Local middleweight Brad Tavares made a thrilling comeback after getting wobbled by Omari Akhmedov early. Tavares turned the tables and nearly got a finish late in the fight to win a split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29).
· Zhalgas Zhumagulov defeated Jerome Rivera by submission at 2:02 of the first round in their flyweight bout.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
