Alex Pereira (10-2) continues his meteoric rise in the UFC by knocking out Jamahal Hill (12-2) in the first round to defend the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in the main event of a historic UFC 300 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

After an accidental kick to the groin, Alex Pereira brushed off the referee and landed his signature left hook that rolled Jamahal Hill’s eyes to the back off his head to close the show.

Leading up to this main event, Hill was adamant that he could compete with Pereira in a stand-up fight and insisted on avoiding grappling exchanges. So far in his UFC career, Pereira has dominated his opponents on the feet, six of which resulting in TKO or KO victories.

In just under three years, Alex Pereira has become a two-division world champion in the UFC and has his eyes on moving up yet another weight class to pursue glory in a third division.

“I want to continue defending this belt,” said Alex Pereira. “I talked a lot about fighting in Brazil if I won this fight. I won this fight. I’m not hurt. Nothing happened. I know there needs to be a lot of promotion behind a fight, but I want to have a fight at heavyweight”.

In three weeks, UFC 301 is scheduled to place in Brazil on May 4^th. If Alex Pereira is healthy and current interim UFC Heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, is up for it, the UFC could look to add this marquee bout to the event on short notice.

The co-main event saw Zhang Weili (25-3) successfully defend her UFC Strawweight Championship against Yan Xiaonan (18-4) via unanimous decision. Zhang dominated for most of the fight landing 256 total strikes to pace to a one-sided scorecard victory.

With this victory, Zhang Weili pushed her win streak to four in a row and successfully defended her strawweight throne for the 3^rd time.

This fight also signifies the first time two Chinese fighters compete against one another in a UFC championship bout.

Prior to the co-main event, Max Holloway (26-7) completed the upset by knocking out Justin Gaethje (25-4) cold in the final second of the 5^th round to win the BMF title. Holloway, who was very likely up on all scorecards, decided to initiate a slugfest in the final ten seconds of the fight where he would land a huge right hand that beat the buzzer and shut Gaethje’s lights out.

This victory earns Holloway his first win at lightweight against one of the division’s toughest opponents. Holloway last competed in the 155 division in 2019 versus Dustin Poirier where he lost on the scorecard by unanimous decision.

After the bout, Max Holloway called out both the UFC Featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, and the UFC Lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.

“I’m him. I’m him, guys,” said Max Holloway. “Theres an El Matador [that’s] running away from a bull at 145. Tell him sign the contract. Spain. Hawaii. Wherever. Even Islam. Islam is famous for defending against [featherweights]”,

Elsewhere on the fight card, Arman Tsarukyan (22-3) managed to crack through the “old guard” of the UFC’s lightweight division by defeating former champion Charles Olivera (34-10) via split decision. After a tough first round, Tsarukyan put together two clean rounds to win on the scorecards.

With this win, Tsarukyan extends his winning streak to four and puts his name in contention to compete for the UFC lightweight title.

“It was five years ago, my fight short notice with Islam Makhachev,” said Arman Tsarukyan. “I gave him the toughest fight and I believe in my next fight I going to [defeat] him. Just give me the opportunity and that’s it”.

“I want to fight for the title next,” said Tsarukyan. “I going to be the youngest UFC champion of the 155 division”.

To open the main card, Bo Nickal (6-0) obtained his 3^rd victory inside the UFC octagon when he submitted Cody Brundage (10-6) in the 2^nd round. After almost finishing Brundage in the 1^st round, Nickal managed to get the job done in the 2^nd round by securing Brundage’s back and locking in a rear naked choke.

Proceeding the bout, Nickal ensured that his level of competition would continue to increase as he chases UFC gold.

“I’m 28 and I have a long career ahead of me,” said Bo Nickal. “I want to fight a better guy. That’s the thing for me. Every single fight I want to fight better, better guys. I think people forget I’m 6-0 and most of the guys I’m fighting have 15-20 fights. So, by the time I’m 12-0, I’ll be fighting for the belt”.

Prelims

Jiri Prochazka def. Aleksander Rakic

Aljamain Sterling def. Calvin Kattar

Kayla Harrison def. Holly Holm

Diego Lopes def. Sodiq Yusuff

Renato Moicano def. Jalin Turner

Jessica Andrade def. Marina Rodriguez

Bobby Green def. Jim Miller

Deiveson Figueiredo def. Cody Garbrandt