Brendan Allen survived a difficult five-round test before submitting Christian Leroy Duncan late in the main event, Andre Fili produced one of the cleanest knockouts of his UFC career, Otari Tanzilovi flattened Malcolm Wellmaker, Niko Price earned the retirement sendoff he wanted, Gerald Meerschaert closed his own career, and nine of 12 fights ended inside the distance at the Meta APEX.
Las Vegas , NV — UFC Vegas 122 did not need a championship belt or a packed arena to produce one of the most complete Fight Night cards of the fall. By the time Brendan Allen finally wrapped his arms around Christian Leroy Duncan’s neck midway through the fifth round, the Meta APEX had already witnessed a stretch of finishes that felt almost relentless. Nine of the 12 fights ended before the final horn, veterans delivered some of the most memorable performances of their careers, prospects announced themselves with violence, two longtime UFC fighters closed important chapters, and the main event ended with Allen once again forcing his way deeper into the middleweight title conversation.
Allen entered the night with considerably more to lose than Duncan. The Louisiana native was ranked inside the middleweight top five, riding momentum and facing an opponent positioned several places behind him, which meant a defeat could have erased much of the work that had carried him toward the top of the division. Duncan, meanwhile, arrived as the dangerous younger contender with less pressure and the striking style to make Allen uncomfortable, and for much of the first four rounds he did exactly that.
Duncan started quickly and looked sharp from range, using jabs, front kicks, knees and combinations to keep Allen from settling into a rhythm. He also found success in the clinch and briefly hurt Allen with a spinning elbow in the opening round, reminding everyone why the British middleweight had climbed quickly enough to earn the matchup. Allen continued pressing for grappling opportunities, but Duncan repeatedly made him work for every position and forced him to navigate long stretches where the striking exchanges favored the younger challenger.
The second round became one of the fight’s major turning points. An accidental eye poke from Duncan led to a point deduction, and Allen capitalized soon afterward by securing a takedown and controlling the fight on the ground. He threatened with an arm triangle, landed elbows and punches, and shifted the momentum dramatically after appearing outgunned on the feet early. From there, the fight became a battle of adjustments, with Allen repeatedly trying to drag Duncan into grappling exchanges while Duncan looked for opportunities to reestablish his striking.
The fight remained competitive from there. Allen controlled significant stretches of the third with grappling and ground-and-pound, while Duncan found his range again in the fourth and began tagging Allen with cleaner offense. By the time the fifth round arrived, neither man had created enough separation to make the outcome feel safe, and Allen needed something decisive. He found it by working behind Duncan, dragging him to the canvas and immediately hunting the back.
Once the hooks went in, the finish developed quickly. Allen locked up a rear-naked choke, tightened the squeeze and forced the tap at 2:46 of Round 5, ending a fight that had demanded virtually every part of his game. The victory extended Allen’s winning streak to four and moved his UFC record to 16-4, tying him for the second-most wins in middleweight history while adding the 15th rear-naked choke victory of his professional career.
Allen immediately used the moment to demand something bigger. He called for a championship opportunity against Sean Strickland or a matchup with former champion Dricus Du Plessis, making clear that he believes he has already spent enough time fighting opponents positioned behind him. After surviving Duncan’s striking, overcoming adversity and finding a fifth-round finish, Allen left Las Vegas with both a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus and a stronger case for a fight that could determine the next direction of the division.
The most visually spectacular finish of the night may have belonged to Andre Fili, whose matchup with Kai Kamaka III was competitive through the opening round before changing in an instant. Fili and Kamaka traded evenly early, with both men finding success but neither establishing complete control. That balance disappeared almost immediately in the second when Fili stunned Kamaka with a punch, reset, and then fired a head kick that landed flush and ended the fight just 22 seconds into the round.
For a fighter with 28 UFC appearances and more than a decade inside the promotion, it may have been the cleanest knockout of Fili’s career. The veteran even began to step forward for a follow-up punch before recognizing that Kamaka was already unconscious and pulling back. The finish snapped Fili’s two-fight losing streak, gave him his 26th professional victory and his 11th knockout, and reminded the featherweight division that one of its longest-tenured fighters still has enough speed and timing to end a fight without warning.
Fili’s head kick also earned him a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, and he was not the only fighter on the card who turned a kick into a career-changing moment. Otari Tanzilovi entered UFC Vegas 122 searching for his first UFC victory after losing his promotional debut earlier this year, while Malcolm Wellmaker entered hoping to halt a two-fight skid after winning his first two UFC bouts by first-round stoppage. Their bantamweight fight began competitively, with Wellmaker pressing forward and landing enough offense to hurt Tanzilovi in the opening round.
Tanzilovi later admitted Wellmaker rocked him, but he recovered and continued finding counters while remaining composed under pressure. The Georgian had been training the same head-kick sequence repeatedly, and midway through the second round the preparation became reality. Wellmaker lowered his guard while moving forward, and Tanzilovi fired a lightning-fast kick that connected flush with the head, sending Wellmaker crashing toward the canvas before follow-up punches forced the stoppage at 2:39 of Round 2.
The knockout gave Tanzilovi his first UFC victory and immediately transformed him from a fighter searching for traction into one of the most memorable performers of the evening. He also collected a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, joining Fili, Allen and Alice Pereira among the night’s four major bonus winners and giving the bantamweight division another young fighter worth monitoring.
Pereira’s finish came in an entirely different form. The 20-year-old bantamweight battered Darya Zheleznyakova throughout the opening round, eventually opening a severe cut with elbows from top position. By the time Zheleznyakova returned to her corner, the damage was significant enough that the cageside physician examined her closely, and she elected not to continue.
The official result became a first-round TKO by retirement at the five-minute mark, giving Pereira her second consecutive UFC win and another statement that the youngest fighter on the roster is developing far faster than her age might suggest. Her aggression, top control and composure stood out throughout the round, and her emotional reaction afterward reflected how much the performance meant to a fighter who has quickly begun to look like a genuine prospect at 135 pounds.
The undercard briefly turned into a conveyor belt of finishes, and Allen Frye Jr. helped start the run by picking up his first UFC victory with a knockout of previously unbeaten RJ Harris at 2:59 of the first round. Harris began aggressively and worked kicks and combinations, but Frye found the opening he needed, hurt him with a right hand and poured on punches until the fight was stopped, giving the heavyweight prospect the kind of emphatic victory that can rapidly change how a division views him.
Brendson Ribeiro followed by submitting Felipe Franco with a guillotine just 1:49 into their light heavyweight matchup. Franco attempted to change levels and secure a takedown, but Ribeiro immediately wrapped the neck, rolled into position and finished the choke with remarkable efficiency. It was the sort of opportunistic submission that punished one mistake immediately and helped keep the card’s momentum rolling.
Then came Niko Price, who had already announced his retirement earlier this year after losing to Michael Chiesa but never really received the sendoff he wanted because Chiesa’s own retirement became the larger storyline around that fight. Sean Shelby eventually offered Price one final opportunity to close his career properly, and Price took full advantage against Leon Shahbazyan.
Shahbazyan barely had a chance to settle into the fight before Price began overwhelming him. Price stuffed or reversed grappling attempts, attacked with elbows and punches from top position and continued pouring on damage until the referee intervened at 1:58 of the opening round. After almost a decade in the UFC, one of the roster’s most consistently unpredictable fighters walked away after a victory rather than another loss, giving him the kind of ending that felt far more appropriate for the career he had built.
Francisco Prado kept the finishing streak alive against Ismael Bonfim, who badly missed weight for their lightweight matchup. Prado stayed composed despite the weight disparity, pressured forward, eventually secured a takedown and began unloading elbows and punches from top position until the referee stopped the fight late in the first round. The victory was especially meaningful because Bonfim’s missed weight created an obvious physical advantage, yet Prado still chose to compete and then overwhelmed him anyway.
Julius Walker then brought another veteran career to an end when he overwhelmed Gerald Meerschaert. Meerschaert entered UFC Vegas 122 with 59 professional fights behind him and one of the longest résumés in modern middleweight history, but Walker never allowed sentiment to interfere with the assignment. He controlled much of the opening round from top position, landed elbows and punches, shut down submission attempts and gradually wore Meerschaert down before doing more of the same in the second.
Walker secured another takedown, stayed heavy on top and continued attacking until the accumulation became too much. He opened up with punches and elbows and forced the stoppage at 3:35 of Round 2, sending Meerschaert into retirement and creating one of the night’s clearest generational contrasts. Price walked away with a victory and the sendoff he wanted, while Meerschaert left after absorbing a one-sided loss from a younger fighter trying to establish his own place on the roster.
Not every fight ended inside the distance, and Jai Herbert’s unanimous decision over Matheus Camilo in the co-main event gave the card a veteran performance built more on patience than destruction. Camilo hurt Herbert late in the first and found success with takedowns, but Herbert reversed momentum in the second and then clearly outworked the younger fighter in the third to earn three 29-28 scorecards.
Loopy Godinez also earned a unanimous decision over Ketlen Souza, although the result was considerably more controversial. Souza appeared to land the harder strikes through the first two rounds and all three unofficial scorers had her ahead after 10 minutes, but Godinez finally secured a takedown in the third and controlled extended portions of the round from top position. The official judges awarded Godinez the first and third rounds on all three scorecards, handing her the 29-28 unanimous decision and giving the night one of its few scorecard debates.
The opening bout between Ernesta Kareckaite and Melissa Gatto produced the card’s only draw. Kareckaite was docked a point in the first round for grabbing the fence, Gatto controlled much of the grappling in the third and the judges ultimately returned scores of 29-27, 28-28 and 28-28 for a majority draw. It was one of the few moments all night when the judges became central to the story.
By the end of the night, however, the scorecards were almost an afterthought. Nine of 12 fights ended inside the distance, with the undercard producing six consecutive finishes before the main card immediately added two more. The UFC awarded four $100,000 Performance of the Night bonuses to Allen, Fili, Tanzilovi and Pereira, while Frye, Ribeiro, Price, Prado and Walker each received $25,000 finish bonuses.
That distribution told the story of the entire event. UFC Vegas 122 was not carried by one spectacular performance or a single unforgettable moment because the violence kept arriving in waves. Allen survived a dangerous contender and finished him deep into the fifth round, Fili authored one of the cleanest knockouts of his long UFC career, Tanzilovi earned his first UFC victory with a highlight that may follow him for years, Pereira continued emerging as one of the division’s youngest threats, Price finally received the retirement moment he wanted and Meerschaert quietly reached the end of his own remarkable run.
UFC Vegas 122 began as another Saturday night card at the Meta APEX, but it ended as the kind of Fight Night that rewards anyone who watches beyond the marquee names. A contender strengthened his argument for a championship opportunity, two veterans delivered devastating head-kick knockouts, a 20-year-old prospect announced herself again, two longtime fighters closed their careers in completely different ways and nine of 12 bouts ended before the scorecards could matter. For a card that arrived without enormous expectations, Las Vegas once again produced the kind of night that reminded everyone why Fight Night events can become unforgettable once the cage door closes.
Andrew Carswell is a combat sports columnist and college writing professor, based in Las Vegas, NV, whose work examines the intersection of fighting, media, business, and culture. His commentary and analysis have been featured in various magazines, newspapers, and media outlets, including Yahoo! News, and USA TODAY. Blending journalistic insight and experience with a fan’s perspective, Carswell writes about the fight game as both a cultural phenomenon and a global business.