The UFC was off last week, but now they return to kick off the month of October with a top ten matchup in the women’s strawweight division. In that fight, fifth ranked Mackenzie Dern faces off against the sixth ranked strawweight contender, Xiaonan Yan.
UFC Vegas 61 Results – Main Event
Mackenzie Dern was one of the brightest prospects in the sport before she made her way into the UFC in 2018. She entered her debut with an undefeated record of 5-0 and quickly went on to win her first two UFC outings. The first win was a split decision win over Ashley Yoder at UFC 222 followed by a first round submission of Amanda Cooper at UFC 224.
Dern suffered her first pro loss after that win, dropping her record to 7-1 after suffering a unanimous decision loss against Amanda Ribas at UFC Fight Night 161. That loss was Dern’s only fight in 2019. The following year, Dern put together three straight wins. She rebounded from her first loss with back-to-back submission wins starting with a kneebar on Hannah Cifers at UFC on ESPN 9 followed by an armbar on Randa Markos at UFC Fight Night 178. Dern’s third win in 2020 was a unanimous decision win over Virna Jandiroba at UFC 256.
In 2021, Dern started the year off with another armbar win, this time against Nina Nunes during their fight at UFC Vegas 23. Following that win, Dern suffered the second loss of her career , dropping a unanimous decision to Marina Rodriguez in Dern’s first main event at UFC Vegas 39. In Dern’s most recent fight, and only other appearance this year in April, she bounced back from that loss with a split decision win over Tecia Torres at UFC 273. In her second main event, Dern looks to get her hand raised this time around and inch closer to a shot at the title.
Xiaonan Yan made her UFC debut the year before Dern did, in 2017 with a record of 9-1, 1NC outside of the octagon. During Yan’s first three years with the UFC, she did not lose a fight. In fact, all six of Yan’s UFC wins have come by way of unanimous decision. In her debut at UFC Fight Night 122, Yan defeated Kailin Curran. In 2018, she won two UDs over Viviane Pereira at UFC Fight Night 132 and Syuri Kondo at UFC Fight Night 141.
Yan picked up one win in 2019 with a win over Angela Hill at UFC 238. In 2020, she was able to pick up two more wins with victories over former title challengers Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC Fight Night 168 and Claudia Gadelha at UFC Vegas 13. Since then, Yan’s win streak has been snapped and she has lost her last two straight fights.
The first of those losses was a second round TKO loss against the woman that would go on to become champion, Carla Esparza, at UFC Vegas 27. That was followed up by a split decision loss in her most recent fight against Marina Rodriguez at UFC 272. Yan looks to snap that losing streak and pick up a big win to place her in the strawweight’s top five.
UFC Vegas 61 Results – Co-Main Event
In Saturday night’s co-main event, UFC vets face off as Randy Brown takes on Francisco Trinaldo. Since the start of 2019, Randy Brown has gone 5-1. After a knockout loss to Niko Price at UFC Fight Night 133 in 2018, Brown won his next two in a row in 2019. The first of those wins was a TKO win over Bryan Barberena in round three of their fight at UFC Fight Night 154. That win was followed up by a triangle choke submission win over Warlley Alves at UFC Fight Night 164.
Following those wins, during Brown’s only fight of 2020, he suffered a knockout loss against Vicente Luque in round two of their fight at UFC Fight Night 173. Since then, Brown has won three in a row leading into Saturday’s fight with Trinaldo. The first of those wins was a submission win over Alex Oliveira in round one at UFC 261. Next up was a unanimous decision win over Jared Gooden at UFC Vegas 39. In Brown’s most recent fight, he defeated Khaos Williams by split decision at UFC 274.
Brown will be looking to improve his win streak to four in a row if he can get through Trinaldo. Meanwhile, Trinaldo looks to extend his win streak to three in a row with a win over Brown. Coming into this fight, Trinaldo holds a record similar to Brown’s since the start of 2019 as his sits at 5-2. Following a TKO win over Evan Dunham at UFC Fight Night 137 in 2018, Trinaldo kicked his 2019 off with a loss.
That loss was a unanimous decision loss to Alexander Hamilton at UFC on ESPN 4. Trinaldo bounced back from that loss with three straight wins to follow. The first of those was a unanimous decision win over Bobby Green at UFC Fight Night 164. That was followed up with another UD win, this time over John Makdessi at UFC Fight Night 170. Win number three on that streak was a third round TKO win over Jai Herbert at UFC on ESPN 14 in a 160-pound catchweight fight.
In Trinaldo’s next fight, he moved up a weight class to the welterweight division and faced Muslim Salikhov in his divisional debut. Trinaldo ended up losing that fight as Salikhov defeated him by unanimous decision. Since then, Trinaldo has won his last two in a row with a split decision win over Dwight Grant at UFC Vegas 41 and a UD win over Danny Roberts in his most recent fight at UFC 274.
UFC Vegas 61 Results – Main Card
Kicking things off on UFC Vegas 61’s main card will be a matchup in the lightweight division as Mike Davis faces Viacheslav Borshchev. Davis enters this fight with a 2-1 record in the UFC after he suffered a submission loss to Gilbert Burns in his debut at UFC Fight Night 150. Since then, Davis has won two in a row with a third round knockout win over Thomas Gifford at UFC Fight Night 161 and a UD win over Mason Jones in Davis’ most recent fight more than a year ago at UFC on ESPN 20. As for Borshchev, he holds a UFC record of 1-1 after he picked up a win in his debut by first round knockout over Dakota Bush at UFC Vegas 46. In his most recent fight, he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Marc Diakiese at UFC on ESPN 33.
Next up on the main card will be a featherweight fight between Sodiq Yusuff and Don Shainis. Yusuff was originally scheduled to take on Giga Chikadze a couple of weeks ago in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 60. Unfortunately, Chikadze pulled out of the fight with an injury and as a result, Yusuff now faces Shainis two weeks later. Yusuff’s last fight coming into Saturday was a unanimous decision win over Alex Caceres at UFC Vegas 50. His opponent, Shainis, will be making his UFC debut with a record of 12-3 outside the octagon.
Finally, before the co-main there will be a matchup in the bantamweight division between Raoni Barcelos and Trevin Jones. After he started his UFC career 5-0, Barcelos is now on a two fight win streak. His win streak was snapped in 2021 when he suffered a majority decision loss to Timur Valiev at UFC Vegas 30. That loss was followed by a unanimous decision loss to Victor Henry earlier this year at UFC 270. Similarly, Jones will also be entering the fight on a two fight losing streak. The first of those losses was a submission loss to Saidyokub Kakhramonov in round three of their fight at UFC Vegas 34. That loss was followed by a unanimous decision loss to Javid Basharat at UFC Vegas 50.
UFC Vegas 61 Results
Follow along with MMASucka as we provide UFC Vegas 61 Results throughout the card.
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ – 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST)
Xiaonan Yan def. Mackenzie Dern via Majority Decision (48-47, 48-47, 47-47)
Randy Brown def. Francisco Trinaldo via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Raoni Barcelos def. Trevin Jones via Unanimous Decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27)
Sodiq Yusuff def. Don Shainis via Submission (Guillotine) at 0:30 of Round One
Mike Davis def. Viacheslav Borshchev via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-26, 30-26)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+ – 4 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST)
Daniel Santos def. John Castaneda via Knockout (Knee) at 4:28 of Round Two
Ilir Latifi def. Aleksei Oleinik via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Joaquim Silva def. Jesse Ronson via TKO (Punches) at 3:08 of Round Two
Brendan Allen def. Krzysztof Jotko via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:17 of Round One
Chelsea Chandler def. Julija Stoliarenko via TKO (Punches) at 4:15 of Round One
Guido Cannetti def. Randy Costa via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:04 of Round One
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