After making its first appearance at the UFC APEX in two months, the UFC remained as its headquarters for a second straight week, hosting UFC Vegas 109 (aka UFC Fight Night: Roman Dolidze vs. Anthony Hernandez) on August 9.
Last week’s card at the UFC APEX was the first UFC Vegas event since May 31. Now, despite these back-to-back weeks, the UFC is not scheduled to return to the APEX at any point through October. The APEX, however, will be playing host to Dana White’s Contender Series events, with the new season beginning this coming Tuesday, August 12, and lasting through October 14.
The main event of UFC Vegas 109 saw a top-10 middleweight contenders’ battle between Roman Dolidze and Anthony Hernandez.
Dolidze entered this fight on a three-fight win streak, consisting of a decision over Anthony Smith, a finish of Kevin Holland, and a decision over Marvin Vettori. Hernandez, meanwhile, had won seven straight, most recently scoring a decision over Brendan Allen in February.
The co-main event featured former flyweight title challenger Steve Erceg competing on bantamweight against Ode Osbourne. Erceg was originally penned to face Alex Perez until Perez pulled out with injury last month. Hyun Sung Park was scheduled to replace him until being pulled to fill in last week’s UFC Vegas 108 main event on a week’s notice. Osbourne was then called upon to face Erceg, result in the 135-pound bout.
Erceg was looking to snap a three-fight losing skid that he’s been on since his unsuccessful title shot against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301. Osbourne had recently snapped his own three-fight losing streak, finishing Luis Gurule in April.
Who performed well in Vegas? Who fell short? Let’s find out with the hits and misses of UFC Vegas 109.
Miss – Another Week, More Confusing Scorecards
I know the opening fight between Cody Brundage and Eric McConico wasn’t the most exciting and wasn’t the easiest to score. But those scorecards…what were those?
The fight itself was back-and-forth, with Brundage controlling the early portion of round before before McConico started to rally and landed a number of combinations and scored takedowns. Brundage had his best round in the second, scoring multiple takedowns and working McConico in the clinch, as well as a damaging head kick. McConico, however, rallied back in the third, busting Brundage open with an elbow and landing at will with his pressure.
Most of the fight wasn’t exactly one-sided, but Brundage certainly seemed to win the second and McConico the third. So, tell me dear reader, how did two judges give round two to McConico?
This is yet another moment when I wish judges had to give responses to controversial and/or questionable decisons.
Hit – We Need A Medic, But Not For Uros Medic
Uros Medic really brought that “Call an ambulance, but not for me” meme into the Octagon with his knockout of Gilbert Urbina.
Medic appeared to be in trouble just seconds into the fight, getting cracked and dropped by a right hand from Urbina. Medic made his way to his feet, and Urbina found some major confidence. Instead of trying to go to the ground with Medic, Urbina elected to follow him around the Octagon, like a predator stalking its prey.
Unfortunately for Urbina, the prey bit back. Medic landed a left hand and knee before dropping Urbina out cold with a left, ending the fight in just over a minute.
Medic has won four of six and is 5-3 since arriving to the UFC from DWCS. He didn’t get a performance bonus for this finish, which is a shame, so here’s his (obviously not as good) recognition. Now the test is going to be if Medic can string wins together.
Hit – Joselyne Edwards Ready For Another Test At Women’s 135?
One of the ones who did get a performance bonus? Joselyne Edwards, and for good reason following her knockout of Priscila Cachoeira during the prelims.
Edwards seemed to get the better of Cachoeira with jabs early on before the Brazilian forced her back a couple of times. Eventually, the two got into exchanges. One of those exchanges saw a one-two land to drop Cachoeira. Then, Edwards dove in with a right hand to put the finishing touches on Cachoeira, knocking her out.
Edwards has now won three straight and six of her last eight. Her two losses in that span were to two people ahead of her in the women’s bantamweight rankings — Allin Perez and Nora Cornolle.
Edwards did also call out former title challenger Mayra Bueno Silva, who was supposed to face Edwards before being replaced by Cachoeira. After this performance, that definitely should be what’s next if that’s what Edwards wants.
Hit – Elijah Smith Slams His Way To Viralness
On a day of spectacular finishes between UFC Vegas 109 and PFL Africa 2, Elijah Smith may have had the best finish of them all as he put away Toshiomi Kazama.
Smith was fast out of the gate, stopping a takedown attempt and landing heavy blows on his opponent. Kazama tried to battle back with submission attempts, and with his last, he locked up a triangle choke.
Then, Smith lifted him up.
A slam doesn’t always work and runs the risk of tightening the choke worse, causing the submission. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Smith brought him down powerbomb style, which knocked Kazama out cold and drew comparisons to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson doing such a knockout in PRIDE.
Smith is now 2-0 in the UFC, having made his Octagon debut earlier this year against Vince Morales. And after this highlight, a greater spotlight should be there for his next fight — and he’ll already have one of the most memorable moments in UFC history that will be played in video packages and spread over social media time and time again.
Hit – Have Your Eye On CLD
His alma matter, Cage Warriors, called him a human highlight reel. And Christian Leroy Duncan looked exactly like that as he put away Eryk Anders to open the main card.
In spite of some early foul trouble, CLD was able to utilize leg kicks to his advantage. At one point, he caught Anders dropping his hands and landed a major spinning back elbow. Anders was rocked and dropped, with some follow-up shots bringing the fight to a quick close.
Duncan, the former Cage Warriors middleweight champion, has now won four of five and is 5-2 in the UFC, with his only losses being against Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues and Armen Petrosyan. As one person posted to X, let’s get Duncan out of the APEX. One of the next times the UFC is over in Europe and CLD is available, he should be on the card.
Hit/Miss – Steve Erceg Breaks Losing Skid (But It Could’ve Gone Better)
I said in last week’s Hits and Misses that I was debating doing something like this, and after another split feeling about something that happened on this week’s card, I’ll let this be both a hit and a miss.
Steve Erceg snapped this three-fight losing streak with a win over Ode Osbourne in the UFC Vegas 109 co-main event. That’s a positive; however, while I understand this was a fight out of his usual weight class, it wasn’t his cleanest performance.
Osbourne started strong, chopping at Erceg’s legs with kicks and landing crisp right hands that wobbled his opponent early in the first round. Erceg recovered, pinning Osbourne to the fence and nearly securing a choke. Osbourne’s speed and striking kept things competitive in the second, but Erceg controlled the distance and clinch, landing key strikes. Erceg took over in full during round three, securing a takedown and getting to mount, nearly scoring a couple of submissions and pressuring Osbourne to a decision win.
Erceg’s losses on the losing skid, against Pantoja, Kai Kara-France, and Brandon Moreno, are not bad losses by any stretch. But Erceg put a lot of pressure on himself to perform well in the fight and break his skid. He obviously got the win, but the performance probably was not what he was hoping for — even with a real short-notice opponent.
Erceg entered the fight ranked No. 10 at flyweight and should have someone around that range to fight next. Maybe they can still book the fight with Alex Perez at some point in the future, but with his fracture, not sure if that’s likely. And if that’s the case, perhaps the Tim Elliott vs. Kai Asakura winner?
Miss – Herb Dean’s (Lack Of) Officiating (And Referees, In General, vs. Fence Grabs)
I don’t want to take away from Anthony Hernandez’s performance in the main event of UFC Vegas 109, but I have to get this off my chest.
Herb Dean was once known as one of the best referees in this sport, and he’s still one of the most recognized referee names. But the way he’s refereed some fights of late has left a lot to be desired.
It took four fence grabs by Roman Dolidze for a point to be deducted in the main event. Four. There is no reason it should have taken that many. Fence grabs when both fighters are stalling against the cage one way or another is one thing. But more than one of those cage grabs were to prevent a takedown — and that’s something I and others in this community (be it fighters, fans, or media) feel should be an automatic point deduction.
On top of that, when he was deducting the one-point in the nature that he did, he obviously didn’t want to stop Hernandez’s momentum, but one of those knees Hernandez landed in the fight-ending sequence was a pretty close call. And I don’t think he was paying enough attention because it was that moment he called the deduction.
It’s also not a good look when Hernandez has to call his own glove grab violation on Dolidze. I know refereeing isn’t an easy job, but when a fighter is doing that to you, that’s kind of a bad look.
But where Dean gets a pass is that, sadly, this isn’t the first time that we’ve had to have a conversation about referees and inconsistency with fence grab violations. Rarely if ever it seems does a referee call for a point-deduction right away — even when a fence grab can greatly change a fight’s outcome because of how it can stop a takedown attempt. And as stated, this case was a bad one because of repeated offense that didn’t result in a penalty.
How we’re having this kind of conversation in 2025 is still baffling to me. But then again, we’re having conversations about proper judging still, too. Sad.
Hit – Fluffy By Name, Violent By Nature
Refereeing (or lack thereof) aside, “Fluffy” Hernandez is just a bad, bad man.
Anthony Hernandez put on a dominant display of control, completely working over Roman Dolidze en route to a fourth-round stoppage in the UFC Vegas 109 main event.
Hernandez imposed his will from the very opening of the fight, overwhelming Dolidze in the clinch and with takedown attempts that required little effort. “Fluffy” was relentless, wearing Dolidze own with his high strike volume and drowning him in grappling. After bullying Dolidze for over 15 minutes, Hernandez, despite a fence grab, just mauled and strangled Dolidze with a choke that wasn’t even sunk in completely, scoring a submission.
That makes eight in a row for Hernandez, and it includes Dolidze, Brendan Allen, Michel Pereira, and Roman Kopylov as some of his most recent victories. We’ll see where Hernandez is in the rankings come Tuesday, but there’s no question he’s ready for the notable contenders and former champions in the division. Is it time to put him in the Octagon against someone like Caio Borralho, Robert Whittaker, or Jared Cannonier?
