After an amazing UFC 281 last weekend in New York City, the UFC returns to their home of Las Vegas with a heavyweight main event as MMASucka provides UFC Vegas 65 results throughout the day.
Breaking News (11/19/2022, 12:30 p.m. PST): Derrick Lewis has been forced out of the main event due to a medical issue and as a result, the main event has been cancelled. Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Ion Cutelaba for three rounds at light heavyweight now serves as the new main event.
UFC Vegas 65 Results – Main Event
Saturday night’s main event features a top-fifteen matchup at heavyweight between veteran knockout artist Derrick Lewis and Serghei Spivac.
Lewis is coming into this fight having lost three of his last four fights as he looks to snap a two fight losing streak. From the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2021, Lewis had put together a four fight win streak with decision wins over Blagoy Ivanov and Ilir Latifi, plus KO/TKO wins over Aleksei Oleinik and Curtis Blaydes. Following that win over Blaydes, Lewis earned a shot at the interim heavyweight championship, facing Ciryl Gane for it at UFC 265. That was the first of his recent losses as Gane snapped his four fight win streak with a TKO finish in the third round.
Lewis bounced back in his next fight after that when he faced Chris Daukaus in the main event of UFC Vegas 45. In that fight, Lewis picked up a knockout win in the first round to rebound from the loss to Gane. Unfortunately, since then, Lewis has dropped back-to-back fights. The first of those was a knockout loss to Tai Tuivasa in the second round of their fight at UFC 271. That was followed by his most recent fight which ended by TKO in the first round against Serghei Pavlovich at UFC 277. Lewis looks to get back in the win column and stay in the top ten with a win on Saturday over Spivac.
Dating back to Spivac’s UFC debut in 2019, he has only suffered three losses in nine UFC fights. He suffered a first round TKO loss in his debut against Walt Harris at UFC Fight Night 151. Spivac rebounded in his second fight with a second round submission of Tai Tuivasa at UFC 243. After that, he suffered another loss, this time against Marcin Tybura by unanimous decision. Following that loss, Spivac put together his first win streak in the octagon with three straight wins including decisions over Carlos Felipe and Aleksei Oleinik, plus a second round TKO over Jared Vanderaa.
His win streak was snapped in September 2021 when he was finished by TKO in the first round against Tom Aspinall at UFC Vegas 36. Since that loss, Spivac has put together two straight wins coming into his fight with Lewis. Both of those wins came by way of TKO as he finished Greg Hardy in the first round at UFC 272 and Augusto Sakai in the second round most recently at UFC Vegas 59.
UFC Vegas 65 Results – Co-Main Event
In Saturday night’s co-main event, light heavyweights collide as Kennedy Nzechukwu takes on Ion Cutelaba. Nzechukwu made his UFC debut in 2019 after a successful showing on the Contender Series in 2018. He lost his debut, suffering a third round submission finish to Paul Craig at UFC on ESPN 2. After that, he put together three straight wins, starting with a unanimous decision victory over Darko Stosic at UFC on ESPN 5. That was followed by back-to-back TKO wins over Carlos Ulberg in round two at UFC 259 and Danilo Marques in the third round at UFC Vegas 30.
His win streak was snapped in his next outing as he suffered a first round knockout loss to Jung Da-Un at UFC Vegas 42. That was followed by another loss as Nzechukwu lost to Nicolae Negumereanu by split decision at UFC 272. Nzechukwu was able to bounce back in his next fight and most recent outing when he picked up a TKO win over Karl Roberson in the third round of their fight at UFC Vegas 58.
Nzechukwu will be looking for his second straight win in this one while Cutelaba enters the fight looking to snap a two fight losing streak. Dating back to the year Nzechukwu made his debut, Cutelaba has only won two fights since then as he has gone 2-5-1 in that timespan. One month after Nzechukwu made his debut, Cutelaba suffered a second round submission loss to a man that would go on to become champion one day, Glover Teixeira. Following that loss, Cutelaba picked up one of his two wins when he finished Khalil Rountree Jr. by TKO in the first round of their matchup at UFC Fight Night 160.
Following that win, Cutelaba suffered back-to-back KO/TKO losses to Magomed Ankalaev in the same year at UFC Fight Night 169 and at UFC 254. The following year, in 2021, Cutelaba fought to a draw with Dustin Jacoby at UFC Vegas 25 before going on to pick up that second win when he defeated Devin Clark by unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 37. Since then, Cutelaba has lost his last two in a row as he has been finished by submission both times against Ryan Spann and Johnny Walker.
UFC Vegas 65 Results – Main Card
Kicking off Saturday’s main card will be a matchup in the welterweight division as Jack Della Maddalena takes on Danny Roberts. Maddalena is coming into this fight with a 2-0 record in the UFC so far as he has picked up TKO wins over Pete Rodriguez and Ramazan Emeev. As for Roberts, he is looking to bounce back from a loss in his most recent fight against Francisco Trinaldo at UFC 274 that snapped a two fight win streak that Roberts had prior.
Following that fight will be another bout at welterweight as Andre Fialho takes on Muslim Salikhov. Fialho recently had a two fight win streak snapped in his most recent fight when he suffered a second round knockout loss to Jake Matthews at UFC 275. Salikhov also enters this fight coming off a loss, but his loss snapped a five fight win streak when he lost to Li Jingliang by second round TKO at UFC on ABC 3.
Finally, before the co-main event goes down, there will be a heavyweight fight between Chase Sherman and the undefeated Waldo Cortes-Acosta. Sherman is coming into this fight coming off a third round TKO win over Jared Vanderaa at UFC Vegas 58 that snapped a four fight losing streak. As for Cortes-Acosta, he looks to keep his undefeated record in tact as he comes into this fight after a successful UFC debut in which he defeated Jared Vanderaa by unanimous decision.
UFC Vegas 65 Results
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ – 4 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST)
Kennedy Nzechukwu def. Ion Cutelaba via TKO (Punches) at 1:02 of Round Two
Waldo Cortes-Acosta def. Chase Sherman via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Muslim Salikhov def. Andre Fialho via TKO (Strikes) at 1:03 of Round Three
Jack Della Maddalena def. Danny Roberts via TKO (Punches) at 3:24 of Round One
Charles Johnson def. Zhalgas Zhumagulov via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+ – 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST)
Jennifer Maia def. Maryna Moroz via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Miles Johns def. Vince Morales via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Ricky Turcios def. Kevin Natividad via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Vanessa Demopoulos def. Maria Oliveira via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Brady Hiestand def. Fernie Garcia via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Natalia Silva def. Tereza Bleda via TKO (Strikes) at 1:27 of Round Three
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