Song Yadong knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov in the second round of the main event of UFC Fight Night in Shanghai on Saturday, one of the biggest upsets of the year at bantamweight. Nurmagomedov went off as a -500 favorite; Song was a +380 underdog. Below is what happened in every fight on the card.
The main event
Song caught his home crowd's hero looking for a takedown and ended the fight almost before anyone could process it.
Nurmagomedov, the cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov and unbeaten in his UFC career apart from a decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili, had built his case as a title threat on wrestling and volume — he came in landing over four takedowns per 15 minutes against a 79 percent takedown defense rate of his own. That profile made him the heavy favorite against a counterpuncher who prefers to fight standing.
It never got that far. Roughly ninety seconds into round two, as Nurmagomedov changed levels to shoot for a takedown, Song landed a perfectly timed hook. Nurmagomedov's legs buckled instantly. Song followed him down and landed several more punches before referee Marc Goddard stepped in at 1:48 of the round.
It was the first finish loss of Nurmagomedov's career. Song, who had answered a decision loss to Sean O'Malley by choking out former champion Deiveson Figueiredo in his last outing, called for a bantamweight title shot in the cage afterward. Nurmagomedov's UFC record moves to 20-2.
The rest of the main card
Denise Gomes def. Yan Xiaonan, KO/TKO (elbow and punches), round 1, 4:49. The co-main event ended just eleven seconds before the round would have closed. Gomes landed an elbow that dropped the veteran Yan, then finished with a follow-up combination that left her unconscious on the canvas before she could recover between rounds. It's the biggest win of Gomes's career and a fourth loss in her last five for Yan, a former title challenger.
Kai Asakura def. Aoriqileng, KO/TKO (head kick and punches), round 2, 0:34. The former Rizin champion needed barely thirty seconds of the second round to land a left high kick that put Aoriqileng down, then followed him to the mat with finishing punches. It's Asakura's second straight win at bantamweight after an 0-2 start to his UFC run.
Sumudaerji def. Alex Perez, decision (unanimous), round 3. All three judges scored it 29-28 in a flyweight rematch that came down to the final five minutes. Sumudaerji stuffed Perez's late takedown attempts and worked the clinch to close out the fight, settling the score after their first meeting in May ended in a no contest when a low blow stopped Perez from continuing.
Ce Liu def. Levi Rodrigues Jr., KO/TKO (punch), round 1, 4:26. Liu delivered a highlight-reel finish in his promotional debut. The two had been trading at range on largely even terms before a clean right hand turned the exchange into a sudden collapse late in the round. It's a statement debut for Liu and a second straight loss for Rodrigues Jr., who had also been stopped in his own UFC debut in July.
Bilal Hasan def. Nilson Rojas, KO/TKO (punch), round 2, 2:28. Hasan dropped Rojas with a straight right after a competitive opening frame, extending his record to 10-0. It came just eighteen days after he'd stopped an opponent in 45 seconds on Dana White's Contender Series, and it handed Rojas the first loss of his career at 9-1.
The prelims
Seven preliminary fights opened the card, with five ending inside the distance.
| Fight | Winner | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Lima vs. Batbayar | Andre Lima | Submission (guillotine choke), round 3, 3:03 |
| Tsuruya vs. Borjas | Rei Tsuruya | Submission (rear-naked choke), round 1, 4:14 |
| Jenkins vs. Woodson | Sean Woodson | Decision (split) |
| Nuzzi vs. Xiao | Francesco Nuzzi | KO/TKO (punches), round 1, 1:00 |
| Lui vs. Santiago | Hector Santiago | KO/TKO (punches), round 2, 0:53 |
| Xiong vs. Polastri | Julia Polastri | KO/TKO (head kick), round 1, 3:06 |
| Ding vs. Nelson | Cameron Nelson | Decision (unanimous), round 3 |
The best finish of the night arguably didn't happen on the main card. Julia Polastri knocked out former ONE Championship titleholder Xiong Jingnan with a two-punch combination into a head kick that put Xiong out before she hit the canvas — a big statement after Polastri had dropped back-to-back decisions coming in. Francesco Nuzzi made the fastest impression of the card, dropping Xiao Long and finishing with follow-up punches in exactly one minute of his UFC debut. And Cameron Nelson, a UFC newcomer out of Prince Edward Island, used wrestling to shut down veteran knockout artist Ding Meng across three rounds for a unanimous decision, a result the pre-fight odds had leaning the other way.
What it means
Song Yadong just became the most dangerous name in a bantamweight division that thought it knew its contenders. Beating a fighter many considered next in line for a title shot, and doing it by knockout in front of Nurmagomedov's own fans, is the kind of result that reorders a weight class overnight. Nurmagomedov, for his part, now has to answer questions he's never faced before: how he responds to the first finish loss of his career, and whether the chin that held up against elite wrestlers and strikers alike was simply caught by one perfectly timed shot rather than exposed as a real weakness.
Full fighter records, styles and the pre-fight breakdowns for every bout are on the event page.