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Among the 26 athletes who showed up on Saturday, some showed out while others fell short of glory. Here are a few fighters whose stock went up or down at UFC 303:
Stock Up: Alex Pereira
That “Poatan” knocked out Jiri Prochazka in Saturday’s main event was not a major surprise. After all, he had won by TKO in their first meeting seven months ago, and whomever you favored in the rematch, it seemed likely to end by knockout again, one way or the other. However, Pereira’s performance in the second go-round was more impressive in almost every detail. Whereas in their first fight, Pereira had lost the first round and appeared to be on his way to losing the second before stunning Prochazka and getting the finish, on Saturday he was clearly the fighter in control the whole way. While last November’s TKO was marred by an arguably early stoppage, the UFC 303 main event was a brutal knockout that began with a pinpoint head kick and ended with a series of standing-to-ground coffin nails that left no doubt. Pereira has accomplished a shocking amount in a short time, to the point that calls are growing louder for him to try his hand at heavyweight and an unprecedented third divisional title.
Stock Up: Dan Ige
It was something of a no-lose scenario for “50K,” who likely pocketed quite a bit more than his namesake for stepping up on hours’ notice to save the UFC 303 co-main event. If he lost to Diego Lopes, who had been scheduled to face Brian Ortega until Ortega fell ill after Friday’s weigh-ins, it was no more or less than expected. If he won, all the better. While plenty of UFC bouts have been reshuffled during fight week or even on fight day, Ige is the first fighter to step up on such short notice who had not already been a part of the lineup. The fight itself was good, not great, but to a certain extent that doesn’t even matter, as Ige’s legend was being written with every second that the fight went on. As a reliably entertaining fighter who has flirted with the edges of the Top 10 but seems unlikely ever to compete for a title, Ige was already settling into a role as a Donald Cerrone-type “anyone, anytime, anywhere” fan favorite. For a fighter in that situation, Saturday’s performance was a dream come true, and cemented the Las Vegas-based Hawaiian as a made man for life in the UFC.
Stock Up: Macy Chiasson
Chiasson picked up a big scalp on Saturday - almost literally, as she split former title challenger Mayra Bueno Silva's forehead open with a second-round elbow strike on the ground. It is the nastiest cut of the year so far in top-level MMA, but more importantly, it marks Chiasson's second win of 2024 after missing all of last year with injuries. The 32-year-old Louisianan had been an intriguing but frustrating talent since joining the UFC as the featherweight winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 28, showing impressive physical tools and offensive skills, but plagued by defensive lapses and persistent issues making weight. With two incident-free weigh-ins and two impressive beatdowns of solid fighters in Silva and Pannie Kianzad so far this year, Chiasson is suddenly looking like a woman who might contend for a title herself before long.
Stock Down: Michael Page
It’s not as if “MVP” was thrashed soundly by Ian Garry at UFC 303. Their fight was very competitive, to the point that a few professional observers, myself included, scored it for Page. But even if the fight had been a lopsided beating, Garry is one of the division’s top prospects, an undefeated phenom who is a decade younger than Page. The real issue is that through two fights in the UFC and 30 minutes of cage time, we have been treated to relatively few glimpses of the magic that made Page such an interesting get when he signed with the promotion last year. There were a few dazzling flashes in his Octagon debut against Kevin Holland – a fighter notorious for letting his opponents dictate the terms of engagement – and even fewer on Saturday against Garry. The second round (incidentally, the only round that Page unquestionably won) saw him zap his young foe with some blindingly quick jabs and one-twos, and outside of that, the lanky kickboxer struggled with Garry’s wrestling and grappling while not particularly outclassing him on the feet. Already 36 when he joined the UFC, Page had zero margin for error if he wished to contend for a title in one of the sport’s deepest divisions. That hope may already be dead, and if things do not change in his next outing, his other best hope – to stick around for a few years as a human highlight reel and bonus magnet – may not be far behind.
Stock Down: Ricky Simon
It was already a sign of how far Simon had fallen that his clash with Vinicius Oliveira was Saturday’s card opener. The man who had been a reliable Top 10 bantamweight for years, the last fighter to defeat upcoming title challenger Merab Dvalishvili (regardless of how you happen to feel about the ruling in their fight), who had headlined a UFC Fight Night card as recently as last April, had been relegated to curtain-jerker duty. More disturbing, however, was how Simon looked once referee Mark Smith waved Simon and Oliveira into action. Simon made his bones in the UFC as one of the last of the true old-school wrestle-boxers, a fighter with a basic but undeniably effective game that ran on athleticism, pace and weaponized cardio. Against Oliveira, Simon looked tentative, his striking volume dried up drastically, and at one point in the fight he was 2-for-11 on takedowns, with the Brazilian popping back up to his feet almost instantly on the two occasions his butt hit the canvas. There is certainly a chance that this was just an isolated poor showing by one of the UFC’s most reliable competitors, but the onus will be on Simon to prove it in his next outing.
Stock Down: Mayra Bueno Silva
If Simon has taken a hit to his stock value in the last year, “Sheetara” has plummeted in a way that is shocking for a woman who fought for a belt earlier this year. After her blood-soaked TKO loss to Macy Chiasson on Saturday, the 32-year-old Brazilian is now on a two-fight losing streak, and thanks to her submission of Holly Holm last year being overturned due to a drug test failure, owns zero wins over bantamweights currently on UFC roster. It is one of the most precipitous falls from grace of any championship-level fighter in the UFC in several years, and leaves Silva with the unenviable task of climbing back to relevance.