The UFC invaded Nashville this past Saturday, bringing a night of action and plenty of finishes to the Bridgestone Arena.
This marked the seventh trip to Nashville for the world’s top MMA promotion, and it’s first since 2023 — a card that saw Cory Sandhagen defeat Rob Font in the main event.
This event’s headline bout, however, came with plenty of heavyweight power, as Derrick Lewis took on the unbeaten Tallison Teixeira. Lewis came into this bout off his finish of Rodrigo Nascimento in May. Teixeira, meanwhile, came into this bout after defeating Justin Tafa in his debut at UFC 312.
Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, another longtime UFC veteran, looked for a victory in the co-main event against the rising Gabriel Bonfim.
Who delivered in Nashville? Who didn’t? Let’s dive into it all with the Hits and Misses of UFC Nashville!
Hit – Highlight-Filled Card
While there was plenty of skepticism coming into this card for entertainment value, UFC Nashville ended up being one of the more fun Fight Night cards that we have seen from the UFC this year.
Fatima Kline got the action started right with a head-kick knockout, Mike Davis had a flying knee in his finishing sequence, and Valter Walker pulled off a quick submission — all within the first three fights of the evening. Jake Matthews also had a strong performance that ended in a win via a 69-second submission, giving the prelims four finishes in its six fights.
The main card also went 4-for-6 for finishes, with Tuco Tokkos and Vitor Petrino getting submission victories and TKOs from Morgan Charrière and Derrick Lewis.
The main and co-main events had their own downsides that soiled the card a bit (see below), but otherwise one of the best Fight Night cards we’ve seen from the UFC in this year.
Hit – Valter Walker Wants Your Leg
It’s one thing to get three of the same kind of finish (KO/TKO over submission) in a row. It’s another thing to do it all in the first round. What Valter Walker has done is a whole other thing — three submissions via leg lock, all in one round.
Walker managed to pressure Kennedy Nzechukwu early to the fence. In just a few simple motions that took just a few seconds, he got Nzechukwu down before locking up one of his legs in an inverted position to score the tapout in just south of 60 seconds.
It was an incredible performance for Walker, the brother of UFC light heavyweight Johnny Walker. The former Titan FC heavyweight champ has now won three straight since dropping his UFC debut. And given the shaky status of heavyweight in the promotion, he’s already positioning himself as one to watch out for.
Hit – Thank You, “Lucky” Lauren
Lauren Murphy wasn’t lucky in getting a win in her retirement fight against Eduarda Moura, but she showed quite the grit while doing so and deserves a salute on the way out for her career.
Murphy was controlled by Moura in terms of speed and grappling ability over the course of two rounds. But Murphy nearly got lucky in the third with a surprise guillotine that almost got the submission. Moura survived, however, and Murphy wasn’t able to get the finish, giving Moura the win.
Murphy, the inaugural Invicta FC bantamweight champion, came into the UFC in 2013, but it was when she dropped to flyweight that she found a rebirth. She went 7-4 in the Octagon at 125, with three of the losses coming in her last four fights — a stretch that began with an unsuccessful challenge of flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 266.
A salute to you, Lauren Murphy. I hope you find luck in your career outside of the cage.
Hit – Jake Matthews Coming Into His Own
Jake Matthews has been with the UFC since 2014, and his next fight will be his 30th in his professional MMA career. Yet, he’s only going to turn 31 next month, and as the heading says, he’s finally coming into his own as a fighter.
Taking on Chidi Njokuani, Matthews ate some nasty leg kicks from Njokuani before pressuring him, getting to his back, and scoring a choke submission in just over a minute. It was really impressive, going from looking like he’d be in for a long night with those kicks, to snatching control quickly and getting a standout submission.
Matthews has now won three straight, four of his last five, and five of his last seven. I don’t know what is next for Matthews, but welterweight better watch for him. Perhaps next is a fight with a lower-ranked contender?
Hit – Steve Garcia Is Contender Ready
Featherweight, meet your new up-and-coming star.
Steve Garcia could have been the opportunity for Calvin Kattar to right his ship against a rising name; instead, Garcia used the fight to make it known that he’s a dangerous name coming up in the division. We’ve seen Kattar use his awesome boxing skills, his amazing striking and pressure, but it was Garcia this time who implemented that gameplan near flawlessly.
Garcia has now won six straight — five of those at featherweight, with three performance bonuses. In mere hours’ time, he will likely have a ranking number next to his name. And it will be fun to see who toward the bottom of the top 10 could be next for him — maybe Josh Emmett or Dan Ige (especially with Kattar having a win over Ige previously)?
Miss – End Of The UFC Road For Calvin Kattar?
Calvin Kattar has consistently been in some entertaining fights over the years. But the record states for itself — his success in the Octagon has disappeared.
The loss to Garcia marks his fifth straight defeat in the UFC, and his sixth loss in the seven-fight stretch he’s had since losing to Max Holloway in January 2021. Without a doubt, Kattar is an excellent striker and a warrior; however, at this point, it’s hard to justify keeping him in the rankings at No. 15. And even worse, some may feel it’s hard to justify him being in the promotion.
It’s rare to find someone who loses three or four straight get another opportunity in the UFC, let alone five. Keep in mind, he’s now two losses away from tying B.J. Penn for second-most consecutive losses in UFC history.
His performances in the Octagon lead me to believe Kattar will get another chance. If he does, however, you have to wonder if he’ll be fighting for his roster spot at that point.
Miss – Gabriel Bonfim gets Undeserved Nod Over Wonderboy
Unfortunately for UFC Nashville, it was the two eagerly-anticipated for fights, the main event and co-main event, where some of the good feelings of the night got spoiled. And it began with possibly one of the worst robberies of this year, with Gabriel Bonfim getting a controversial decision over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
Bonfim beat out Thompson’s range and point-based striking methods with a pair of takedowns during the opening round. Bonfim, of course, checked a kick that opened up a bad gash on Thompson’s leg, but “Wonderboy” continued to use it — and nearly finished Bonfim with his kicks.
Thompson continued to land his kicks in the third, but Bonfim would pressure him to the fence and scored a takedown — but he didn’t do much. Despite a ref’s warning for stalling, however, no separation happened, and two of three judges gave the round to Bonfim, giving him the split decision victory.
The result is what people expected going into the bout originally, but the MMA community near unanimously seems to be in agreement that “Wonderboy” is robbed. In fact, this fight tells us less about “Wonderboy” and more about concerns regarding Bonfim.
Sure, Bonfim has had impressive performances, and he’s got more to benefit with a contender ranking than a 42-year-old Thompson. But what does it say when one of your contenders, in the biggest test of his career, nearly lost to a fighter who is near the end of his MMA tenure? It’s not good, and we need a better performance from Bonfim in his next outing to take him seriously as a contender at 170.
Hit – Vintage Black Beast
Whatever you felt of the finish to UFC Nashville’s main event, one thing is for certain, “The Black Beast” still has his devastating power even at 40 years of age. And it’s always a pleasure to watch.
One would think Derrick Lewis would have been in serious trouble after getting hit in the eye with a knuckle from a Tallison Teixeira punch. But an impressive left hook and a flurry of punches later, Lewis got his hand raised.
Lewis now has won three of his last four. And as someone in the top-10 at heavyweight that Tom Aspinall has not faced, perhaps one more win can give Lewis one last miracle shot at UFC gold.
Miss – Main & Co-Main Ruined By Poor Officials
It started with poor judging. As mentioned, many agreed that Bonfim didn’t do enough against Thompson in the final round — and yet somehow, two of the three judges at Octagonside gave 10-9 scores for Bonfim.
It’s not the first time that we’ve dealt with issues of someone getting an undeserved win, whether in history or just in 2025, and it won’t be the last. For someone like Thompson, however, who could have had one last victory in the Octagon and stopped a rising star’s momentum, this decision meant the world.
And this brings into question the Unified Rules of MMA. If we’re talking effective striking and grappling, then what is “effective”? How did the judges look at what Bonfim was doing in the third — with the referee warning for inactivity — and call it effective? It’s one thing if Thompson was offering up zero offense in the round; however, Thompson had been doing damage up until Bonfim took him down.
Also, shame on the referee for not stepping in and separating during a crucial point — the fight’s final minute.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Unified Rules and the “10-point must system” the sport has borrowed from boxing does not fit in MMA. The PRIDE scoring system (aka the Global Rules scoring system), as seen in promotions like PRIDE and One Championship, work so much better for the sport.
And then, on top of it, many are trashing the stoppage Jason Herzog made in the main event of the evening. I’ll say this — if Herzog wanted to stop the fight when Teixeira hit the mat, getting knocked down by the vicious hook from Lewis, perfectly fine. If he wanted to take a point or two away from Teixeira for grabbing the fence to get himself up, that’s fine, too.
But to play “halfsies,” and wait for Teixeira to get to his feet to make the call he can’t continue, that can’t happen. Either give him the chance to get back in the fight or not — you could have stopped that earlier.
It’s sad, in 2025, a great night of action is spoiled by terrible decision-making from the people we should trust with power in this sport.
Miss – No Clear Answers For Heavyweight
We have a mess at heavyweight. We have the ongoing Jon Jones saga as it relates to Tom Aspinall and the heavyweight title. Aspinall has beaten most of the top 10 — and beaten them in the first round. And the number of fighters in heavyweight division is only double that of the number of ranked heavyweight fighters.
It’s a bad state of things, and UFC Nashville, in spite of its highlights, have given us no answers.
Teixeira was only competing in his second UFC bout. And yet with his unbeaten record he had entering UFC Nashville, a win over Lewis would have done him wonders and provided us a potential answer for the division. Lewis still could get a title shot somehow, but is a 40-year-old Derrick Lewis really the answer for a fight with Aspinall (if he gets through his next presumed opponent in Ciryl Gane)?
Vitor Petrino looked solid, but he’s not ranked right now. And Volkan Walker will most likely just get into the contender spots after this weekend.
Add into it that there are no heavyweight fights now until UFC Shanghai late next month, and that UFC CEO and President Dana White still feeling Jones vs. Aspinall would be the “dream” main event for the White House card next year, and it looks like it’s still going to be a long, rocky road for heavyweight.
