UFC Vegas 119 Power Rankings: Rating The Night’s Big Winners At Meta APEX
The action returned to the UFC’s home base of Meta APEX as Manel Kape and Kyoji Horiguchi went head to head for a possible shot at the undisputed UFC flyweight title.
Here are our power rankings for the night’s top performers at UFC Vegas 119.
UFC Vegas 119 Power Rankings
1. Manel Kape
Portugal’s hard-hitting flyweight contender showcased his punch power in MMA gloves in stunning fashion as he turned his main event fight with Kyoji Horiguchi on its head with one connection from his heavy hands.
Horiguchi had largely dominated the first two rounds, and looked in solid form in the third, but then Kape found a home for his punches as he stunned the Japanese legend with a big shot that put Horiguchi on wobbly legs.
Kape closed in to finish the job and put himself right in line for a shot at the title. It’s likely that he’ll have to wait for the rematch between Joshua Van and former champ Alexandre Pantoja, but if that fight gets delayed and the UFC brass want to keep Van active, Kape is in prime position to step in and take advantage.
2. Murtazali Magomedov
UFC debutant Magomedov arrived in the UFC with a perfect record, and a perfectly symmetrical finish rate, with five KOs and five submissions from his 10 fights. On Saturday night, he added to his submission tally with a first-round finish of Melsik Baghdasaryan, and he did so in fine style.
Magomedov finished Baghdasaryan with a rarely-seen twister submission to take his career record to 11-0 with his sixth sub finish. Given the impressive way in which he dispensed with Baghdasaryan, it’s highly likely that the Kyrgyz athlete will be bumped up in competition sooner rather than later. And in the featherweight division, there’ll be no shortage of exciting matchups to test his mettle as he looks to work his way to the top.
3. Navajo Stirling
New Zealand’s Stirling might not be brash, but he’s certainly full of confidence in his abilities. Given his perfect professional record 10-0 record, that’s no surprise.
Stirling needed less than a round and a half to finish the always tough, always aggressive Ion Cutelaba in the co-main event as he put the division’s big names on notice with another impressive showing.
The Kiwi striker from City Kickboxing appears to be taking a similar path to his teammate, reigning light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg, as he steadily makes his way up the 205-pound division. And, after registering his fifth straight victory inside the Octagon, it’s highly likely that we’ll see him in the cage with ranked opposition next time out.
4. Christian Rodriguez
After the toughest period of his professional fighting career, Christian Rodriguez was in need of an unturn in fortunes, and he got it in outstanding fashion on Saturday night.
Rodriguez, who lost his longtime head coach Duke Roufus after his untimely death last year, was on a two-fight skid, and had made the decision to move to Las Vegas and resume his career under the tutelage of head coach Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture. And in his first fight with his new coach and team, he delivered a performance to remember.
Faced with hard-hitting Hyder Amil, Rodriguez went toe to toe with his opponent before eventually dropping him and finishing him with a guillotine choke that eventually rendered Amil unconscious.
It was an emphatic victory, and one that marks the start of a new chapter in “CeeRod’s” career.
5. Vinicius Oliveira
After exploding his way into the UFC via Dana White’s Contender Series, much was expected of Vinicius Oliveira in the UFC’s bantamweight division, but after coming to accept that he was draining himself and forcing himself to fight in a compromised state, Oliveira made the decision to move up to featherweight.
His divisional debut came on Saturday night, where he engaged in a fun back-and-forth battle with featherweight vet Andre Fili that eventually ended with Oliveira claiming a second-round TKO.
With the Brazilian now in a weight class that should bring the best out of him, the sky could be the limit for “LokDog”.
