Muhammad Beats Luque via Decision in Main Event Rematch

UFC returned to the Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night for a Fight Night card headlined by Vicente Luque and Belal Muhammad.

The main event is a rematch of a thrilling bout from UFC 205 in November 2016. Luque won that contest by knockout 79 seconds into the first round. It was just the second of three career losses for Muhammad, who entered this event without a loss in his past seven bouts.

Luque has been riding one of the hottest streaks of his career dating back to 2020. The Silent Assassin won four straight fights by stoppage since losing to Stephen Thompson at UFC 244. His last two victories were first-round submissions.

Here are the results and analysis from UFC Fight Night 206.

Main Card

Men’s Welterweight: Belal Muhammad def. Vicente Luque via unanimous decision (49–46, 49–46, 49–47)

Men’s Middleweight: Caio Borralho def. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev via technical decision (29–27, 29–27, 29–27)

Men’s Welterweight: Andre Fialho def. Miguel Baeza via first-round TKO (punches)

Women’s Bantamweight: Mayra Bueno Silva def. Wu Yanan via unaniumous decision (29–28, 29–28, 30–27)

Men’s Featherweight: Pat Sabatini def. T.J. Laramie via unanimous decision (30–26, 30–26, 30–26)

Men’s Welterweight: Mounir Lazzez def. Ange Loosa via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)

Preliminary Card

Men’s Heavyweight: Devin Clark def. William Knight via third-round TKO (punches)

Women’s Bantamweight: Pannie Kianzad def. Lina Lansberg via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)

Men’s Lightweight: Drakkar Klose def. Brandon Jenkins via second-round TKO (punches)

Men’s Lightweight: Rafa Garcia def. Jesse Ronson via second-round submission (rear-naked choke)

Men’s Heavyweight: Martin Buday def. Chris Barnett via technical decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)

Men’s Lightweight: Jordan Leavitt def. Trey Ogden via split decision (28–29, 29–28, 29–28)

Womens Strawweight: Sam Hughes def. Istela Nunes via majority decision (29–27, 29–27, 28–28)

Story continues

Men’s Bantamweight: Heili Alateng def. Kevin Croom via first-round TKO (punches)

Recap

Luque and Muhammad didn’t disappoint in their second head-to-head matchup. The welterweight fighters engaged in a five-round battle that saw both men bloodied and battered.

By the time it got to the fifth round, both fighters were exhausted. Muhammad and Luque spent the majority of the final round on the ground. Muhammad was going for a choke, but he never had a good angle to lock it in.

After they stood up with less than a minute to go, both men just started throwing punches with everything they had left before the buzzer sounded.

Andre Fialho had the most spectacular finish on the show. The 28-year-old dropped Miguel Baeza in the final minute of the first round with a hard left and moved in with a series of punches before the referee stopped it.

Pat Sabatini had arguably the most dominant performance of the night. The Pennsylvania native earned a unanimous decision win over T.J. Laramie with 30-26 scores across the board.

The second round was complete domination by Sabatini. He got Laramie to the ground quickly after the bell rang, kept him down for the duration of the round, landed a series of punches and was aggressively trying to lock in a choke hold before time expired.

Even though Laramie was able to make it through the entire fight, there was no doubt that Sabatini was the better fighter on this night.

There were two technical decisions on this card. The first one occurred on the preliminary card with Martin Buday beating Chris Barnett.

Late in the third round, the fight was stopped for what was called an illegal strike by Buday. It was later ruled an accidental strike, which doesn’t result in a point deduction. The fight was stopped at that point and it went to the judges, who scored the bout 30-27 across the board for Buday.

The second technical decision came in the semi-main event. Caio Borralho hit Gadzhi Omargadzhiev with an illegal knee strike in the third round and lost a point. He had been dominating the match up to that point, allowing him to hold on for a decision win with 29-27 scores from each of the three judges.

The final fight on the preliminary card turned into a three-round thriller between Devin Clark and William Knight.

Both fighters were trading blows throughout the first two rounds. Knight even landed something resembling a German suplex late in the second round.

Given how close the first two rounds were, both fighters came out swinging in the third round looking for a finish. Clark landed an elbow, followed by a hook that left Knight stunned. He hit a few more big shots before the referee stepped in to end the fight with 99 seconds left on the clock.

Both fighters came into the bout having lost their previous two fights. Clark’s victory was the 13th of his mixed martial arts career and his first as a heavyweight after fighting exclusively as a light heavyweight since 2016.

UFC will remain at the Apex for two more weeks for Fight Night and an ESPN event before traveling to Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona for UFC 274 on May 7. Charles Oliveira will defend the lightweight championship against Justin Gaethje in the main event of the pay-per-view show.