The main event was the fight of the night, and for a while it looked like the heavyweight title was changing hands. Josh Hokit, the unbeaten challenger, came out with relentless forward pressure and built an early lead, walking Ciryl Gane down and repeatedly forcing him backward. Gane, a fighter who has faced questions about his heart in the past, answered them emphatically. He stuffed all 11 of Hokit’s takedown attempts, found his second wind as the challenger began to tire, and outlanded him 158 to 84 in total strikes across the final two rounds, sweeping the championship rounds on all three scorecards to win a unanimous decision, 48-47 three times. It was Gane’s first defence since he was elevated to undisputed champion after Tom Aspinall vacated the title, and it moves him to 15-2 with one no contest, while Hokit suffered the first loss of his career and falls to 10-1. Both men earned Fight of the Night honours. Whoever comes next, with Alexander Volkov and the winner of December’s Alex Pereira and Sergei Pavlovich fight among the options, will have seen a champion who can win the hard way.
The co-main event ended a rivalry nearly eight years in the making. Amanda Nunes, back from retirement, frustrated Kayla Harrison’s grappling early and had her moments on the feet, but Harrison found her way in with two judo throws that put the former two-division champion in dangerous positions. In the fourth round, Harrison caught a kick, put Nunes on the canvas, took her back almost immediately and locked in a rear-naked choke at 1:29. Harrison, now 20-1, earned a Performance of the Night bonus for the biggest win of her MMA career, and with titles in the PFL and UFC on top of her Olympic gold medals, her claim to be one of the greatest women’s combat sports athletes of all time has rarely looked stronger.
Then there was Stephen Thompson. Retirement fights in MMA rarely go to plan, but Wonderboy’s did. Against Charles Radtke, the opponent he handpicked for his final appearance, Thompson landed a spinning wheel kick at 2:54 of the third round that ended the fight on the spot, at the same venue where he first fought for the UFC title a decade ago. It was the kind of finish he was famous for in his prime, it earned him a Performance of the Night bonus, and it sends him into retirement at 18-9-1 with a moment that will be replayed for years.
Bia Mesquita, the decorated jiu-jitsu champion, continued her perfect start in the UFC, submitting Macy Chiasson with a rear-naked choke at 3:23 of the first round to move to 9-0 and hand Chiasson her fourth consecutive defeat. The night’s biggest upset came at flyweight, where Luis Gurule took a split decision, 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28, over Bilal Hasan, who entered as the card’s biggest favourite and was beaten by Gurule’s wrestling over the final two rounds. Caio Borralho outworked Yousri Belgaroui for a clear unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards, and the welterweight fight between Uros Medic and Kevin Holland ended in a majority draw, 29-27 for Medic with the other two judges scoring it 28-28, after a moment of confusion when the scores were initially read out incorrectly. On the prelims, Chris Duncan beat Drew Dober by unanimous decision and Evan Elder opened the night with a decision win over Samuel Sanches.
Away from the cage, the UFC also confirmed new bookings for early 2027, including Joe Pyfer against Bo Nickal at UFC Cleveland in February. But the story of the night belonged to a champion who refused to break, a champion who finished a legend, and a legend who left the sport exactly the way he would have wanted.
