Quillan Salkilld submitted Mateusz Gamrot with a rear-naked choke at 4:25 of the first round to win the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Saturday night, and in doing so announced himself as a real problem in the UFC's lightweight division. A rear-naked choke is applied from behind the opponent, with one arm wrapped around the neck; Gamrot tapped the mat to concede rather than lose consciousness. It was the 26-year-old Australian's fourth consecutive first-round finish, and it took him past the best opponent of his career.
The main event
Salkilld beat Gamrot at Gamrot's own game, which is the part almost nobody expected.
Gamrot, 35, is a Polish veteran ranked eighth at lightweight who built his career on wrestling — taking opponents to the floor over and over at a pace that never drops. Salkilld came in at 12-1 overall and ranked twelfth, four places below Gamrot, without a win over anyone that high up the division. The expectation was that Gamrot's grappling and conditioning would eventually drown a fighter whose UFC bouts had barely left the early minutes.
Instead, Salkilld stung Gamrot early with a left hook. Gamrot responded with a hurried takedown attempt and a hunt for a leg lock rather than his usual measured wrestling. Salkilld defended the scramble, took Gamrot's back during the transition, and finished the choke with under a minute left in the round.
The win came in Salkilld's first main event and earned him a Performance of the Night bonus — a $100,000 award the UFC hands out for standout individual showings. Beating the man ranked eighth should move him up sharply when the rankings are next updated; he went into the night at twelfth.
The rest of the main card
The four supporting main card fights produced three finishes and the night's best fight.
Carlos Diego Ferreira def. Billy Quarantillo, unanimous decision. The co-main event was the second-biggest fight of the night and won Fight of the Night honors. Ferreira, 41, absorbed Quarantillo's constant forward pressure, countered well on the feet and used his grappling to control long stretches. All three judges gave him every round, 30-27. Ferreira improves to 20-7; Quarantillo drops to 18-8 and has now lost three in a row.
Yadier del Valle def. Darren Elkins, TKO, round 1, 0:35. Del Valle landed a left hand that dropped Elkins to the canvas 35 seconds in, shortly after Elkins' own takedown attempt had been shut down. TKO stands for technical knockout, meaning the referee ended the fight rather than a fighter being counted out. Elkins, 42, was widely expected to retire after this bout, closing a 16-year UFC run.
Alexia Thainara def. Amanda Lemos, unanimous decision. Thainara took a clean right hand from Lemos in the second round that briefly left her unsteady, recovered, and then pressured Lemos in the striking exchanges while mixing in the cage control and grappling that built her UFC record. Judges scored it 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27. Thainara, ranked twelfth at strawweight, beat the division's eighth-ranked fighter — the best win of her career.
Ty Miller def. Billy Ray Goff, TKO, round 3, 0:15. Miller used his reach to pick Goff apart from the outside, staggered him with a head kick, and finished with a right hand 15 seconds into the third round. Goff appeared to be dealing with an eye injury, and his corner drew criticism from analyst Daniel Cormier for sending him out for a round he had little chance of surviving. Miller, still unbeaten at 8-0, took the night's second Performance of the Night bonus.
The prelims
The seven preliminary fights — the undercard bouts that air before the main card — delivered four finishes.
| Fight | Winner | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Asplund vs. Pat | Steven Asplund | Unanimous decision |
| Nurgozhay vs. Lopes | Diyar Nurgozhay | TKO (punches), round 1, 4:59 |
| Sutherland vs. Luiz | José Luiz | Submission (face crank), round 1, 1:50 |
| Sousa vs. Miranda | Manoel Sousa | Unanimous decision |
| Johns vs. Vazquez | Miles Johns | TKO (punches), round 1, 3:09 |
| Miller vs. Oliveira | Juliana Miller | Submission (rear-naked choke), round 2, 1:38 |
| Canuto vs. Foro | Carol Foro | Unanimous decision |
José Luiz had the fastest night of anyone. The Brazilian heavyweight needed less than two minutes of his UFC debut to take Louie Sutherland to the mat and force a tap with a face crank, a hold that wrenches the head backwards. Sutherland's takedown defense had been the obvious weakness in the matchup, and Luiz exploited it immediately. He is now 7-1 and on a four-fight winning streak.
Miles Johns won the most eventful prelim. Short-notice replacement Gianni Vazquez caught Johns coming forward and dropped him early in the first round; Johns recovered, put Vazquez down with a left hand, and finished with ground strikes at 3:09. The win snapped a three-fight losing streak and was Johns' first victory since June 2024.
Juliana Miller likely saved her roster spot. She took Ravena Oliveira down, worked to her back and finished with a rear-naked choke at 1:38 of round two — the same grappling route the matchup pointed toward. Miller had won only one of her previous four UFC fights.
What it means
Salkilld is now the most interesting name at lightweight. He has finished four straight opponents in the first round, and the concern that he had never beaten anyone at Gamrot's level no longer applies. A top-five opponent is the logical next step.
Gamrot's position is genuinely difficult. At 35, he has lost two of his last three, and he was finished by a fighter ranked four places below him. He remains a very good lightweight, but the title conversation is likely closed.
Two prospects took clear steps forward. Alexia Thainara beat the highest-ranked opponent she has faced, and did it by surviving trouble rather than avoiding it. Ty Miller stayed unbeaten and collected a bonus.
Two long careers moved closer to the end. Darren Elkins was knocked out in 35 seconds in what was expected to be his farewell fight, and Billy Quarantillo has now lost three straight and been finished in two of them. Amanda Lemos, at 39, has dropped three in a row.
The full card, including every fighter's record, statistics and the pre-fight breakdowns that got some of this right and some of it wrong, is on the event page — the Lemos vs. Thainara breakdown is a useful example of how a striker-versus-grappler matchup is read before the fact. If you want to know what is coming next, the next card has the full schedule.