by UFC 330 was live tonight from Philly
Thoughts on the undercard
The undercard started off red hot with three straight finishes to begin the night. Jeremiah Wells upset heavy favorite Myktybek Orolbai via way of Ninja Choke followed by Neil Magny knocking out Ramiz Brahimaj. Perhaps Magny is not done yet, 26-14 in the UFC which almost seems nuts. Finally, the first 3 fights ended with a Lucas Fernando having little no issues at all TKO’ing Rafeal Tobias in the third.
Tresean Gore lost a tooth by won the fight via decision over Vicente Luque in a decision that honestly could have went either way. The knockout of the undercard came from Donte Johnson who knocked Eric McConico Jr into tomorrow with a brutal cross right to the chin. Johnson fought this fight at middleweight but is big enough to contend at Light Heavy and Heavyweight with ease.
One of the more bizarre fights you will ever witness saw Charles Johnson rally back from two brutal rounds to shock last second fill in opponent Eduardo Henrique with an Scottish Twister. Johnson overcame an eye poke and knee to the head while down to rally back for a thrilling comeback win.
As thrilling as that fight was, the final fight of the undercard was an absolute snoozefest. Joel Alvarez stood directly in front of Chidi Njokuani for three straight rounds and took one lackluster leg kick after another. Alvarez had chance after chance to attack but simply never did. A lousy fight to end an action-packed undercard.
Thoughts on the Main Card
The main card opened up extremely emotional as UFC veteran Edson Barboza fought and lost the final fight of his magnificent career against an incredibly talented Esteban Ribovics who looked pretty damn unbeatable. It only took him a little over one round to defeat the UFC Stallworth.
Barboza ends his magnificent career at 25-15 and without a single UFC title despite always being near the top of his division, he never even fought for a title. Wild to think! Meanwhile, Ribovics improves to 16-3, and despite losing 2 of his last 3 coming into this fight, showed everyone again just how dangerous he can be.
Walk ins show Ian Machado Garry arriving to the arena earlier in the night with perhaps one of the hottest UFC wives of all time. Ok, moving on.
When it comes to fighting, Philly is known for the greatest underdog of all time in Rocky Balboa. Tonight, Philly had another hometown underdog make them proud as PA native Dustin Stoltzfus knocked off a huge favorite in Mansur Malik by second round submission. Not only did he win, but he dominated him for two straight rounds. Stoltzfus came in at 16-8 and only 3-7 in the UFC. This is perhaps the biggest upset of 2026.
Jalin Turned wasted no time at all knocking out Kaue Fernandes in just 39 seconds. Fernandes went for a spinning back fist and left himself wide opened to get absolutely clocked in the face and dropped hard. The ref wasted little time and stepped right in to stop the fight.
In the Co-Main Event of the night it was UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Mackenzie Dern absolutely dog walking Gillian Robertson in an dominant decision win. Robertson couldn’t do damage as their was next to no power behind anything she tried to do. Meanwhile, Dern had her way with Robertson, taking her down at will nearly submitting her 4 times. It may have went the distant, but the outcome was obvious only minutes in.
The judge who gave Robertson two rounds, must have scored the third and fifth for her as those were the only two in which she had any fight in her at all. I’m not sure if the moment was just too big for Robertson, or she was simply a creation of the UFC hype machine because she didn’t look anything like billed. A pathetic excuse for a title fight as it was like watching a Woman against a young girl. Dern looked better tonight that she has her in her entire career.
Garry vs Makhachev started off slow but turned out to be everything it was supposed to be. Makhachev dominated the first two rounds with ease, almost finishing Garry with a vicious head kick in the second before Garry bounced back to win the third and actually capture the fourth on one scorecard. The fifth round was once again dominated by the incredible ground game of the champ as he salted away his record setting 17th straight UFC win.
The only major question mark out of this is how long can Makhachev hang with guys so much bigger then him at Welterweight? Garry exposed some flaws in the champ for the first time ever, it will be interesting to see how Makhachev does against Carlos Prates in the near future.
Upset of the night – Dustin Stoltzfus
KO of the night – Tied with Jalin Turner & Donte Johnson
Submission of the night – Charles Johnson
Fight of the night – Garry vs Makhachev
Performance of the night – Mackenzie Dern
