Anthony Hernandez

Rodrigues established range immediately, landing leg kicks and heavy striking to dominate the opening rounds. Hernandez rallied in round three, mixing in takedown attempts to change the fight's shape. Rodrigues found a second wind in round four, and over the final five minutes he defended Hernandez's takedown attempts while continuing to land the more impactful blows to close out the decision.

Key moments

• Rodrigues established range immediately, landing leg kicks and heavy striking to dominate the opening rounds.
• Hernandez rallied in round three, attempting takedowns to change the fight's shape.
• Rodrigues found a second wind in round four and continued landing the more impactful blows through the final five minutes to secure the decision.

Hernandez's eight-fight surge finally ended when Strickland kept enough of the bout in open space to punish the entries and steadily wear him down with boxing volume.

Key moments

• Headlined a high-stakes middleweight main event in Houston.
• Strickland's sustained jab-and-pressure game kept interrupting Hernandez's wrestling rhythm.
• The official stoppage came at 2:23 of round three.

Hernandez turned a main-event test against Dolidze into a pace fight and eventually a drowning.

Key moments

• Won the main event by rear-naked choke at 2:45 of round four.
• He controlled enough of the grappling exchanges to leave Dolidze reacting instead of leading.
• The result pushed Hernandez deeper into the middleweight contender tier.

Hernandez's first UFC main event became the best endurance proof of his middleweight surge. Pereira survived into the fifth round, but Hernandez's pressure and attritional grappling gradually broke the fight open until the elbows and follow-up damage forced a late stoppage at 2:22 of round five.

Key moments

• Won his first UFC headliner by fifth-round TKO.
• The official stoppage came at 2:22 of round five.
• Hernandez's pressure built over time rather than exploding in a single early burst.
• The finish moved him from dangerous dark horse to obvious contender.

Kopylov had early success with the body kicks, but Hernandez kept forcing the fight back into his preferred kind of chaos.

Key moments

• Submitted Kopylov with a rear-naked choke at 3:23 of round two.
• Hernandez kept attacking through the early body-kick success Kopylov enjoyed.
• The result earned Hernandez another Performance of the Night bonus.