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The UFC promoted its final event of 2021 on Saturday night: The UFC Fight Night 199 card out of Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. From the early vantage point, the card really didn’t look like much. Yet it ended up being an excellent way to wrap up another exciting year for the top promotion in MMA.
In the main event, long-time heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis picked up yet another knockout, this time at the expense of rising talent Chris Daukaus. In the co-main event, meanwhile, Belal Muhammad burst into welterweight title contention with a lopsided decision defeat of two-time title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Elsewhere on the lineup, finally, we saw impressive finishes from the likes of Ricky Simon, Mateusz Gamrot, Cub Swanson, Justin Tafa, Melissa Gatto and Raquel Pennington.
When all was said and done, it felt like one of the UFC’s more exciting Fight Nights of the year—and one we’ll likely still be talking about into 2022.
Keep scrolling to see the real winners and losers from the event.
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Derrick Lewis is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC heavyweight division. That’s due in part to his fan-friendly fighting style—he holds the record for the most knockout wins in UFC history—and in part to his endearing personality.
Both were on full display in the UFC Fight Night 199 main event.
Lewis was matched up with rising contender Chris Daukaus in the card’s headliner. Despite entering the Octagon as a slight underdog, he picked up a devastating first-round knockout victory, rebounding from a stoppage loss to Ciryl Gane in the process. Lewis then delivered some vintage post-fight antics, removing his cup and throwing it into the crowd where it was collected by a fan who might want to give some thought to the decisions they’re making in life.
It was a night that encapsulated everything “The Black Beast” is about, and one that will keep his legend alive heading into the new year.
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Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson has long been regarded as one of MMA’s most difficult puzzles to solve. Belal Muhammad made it look easy in the UFC Fight Night 199 co-main event, defeating the two-time former welterweight title challenger with a lopsided unanimous decision win.
“Nobody’s ever beat Wonderboy like that,” Muhammad told commentator Michael Bisping in his post-fight interview.
Muhammad’s victory over Thompson was a product of his rapidly improving skills, but it was also thanks to a carefully crafted game plan and his diligent adherence to it. It was clear from the opening bell that the fighter and his team believed takedowns and pressure were the key to beating Thompson, and he did not break from that strategy for the duration of the fight.
His reward is the biggest win of his career to date—and one that will probably set him up for a fight with a top-5 opponent.
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It’s not easy to get ranked in the UFC. It’s even harder to keep a ranking in the UFC. At UFC Fight Night 199, Brazilians Diego Ferreira and Raphael Assuncao learned that the hard way.
Ferreira, the No. 12-ranked lightweight contender, was in action first, losing by TKO to unranked Polish star Mateusz Gamrot—a former KSW champ. Assuncao, the UFC’s 12th-ranked bantamweight, was in action immediately after Ferreira, taking on American wrestling specialist Ricky Simon, also unranked. Like his countryman, Assuncao had a tough night at the office, succumbing to a sizzling Simon right hand in the first round.
While UFC Fight Night 199 didn’t go as planned for these two Brazilians, it was a potentially career-changing night for Gamrot and Simon, both of whom will likely have numbers next to their names when the rankings are updated early next week.
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Cub Swanson is 38 years old. That’s ancient for a featherweight.
That memo must have ended up in his spam folder.
Swanson, who has had 40 fights since his pro career began in 2004, returned to the Octagon in the opening bout of the UFC Fight Night 199 main card, taking on Darren Elkins. Elkins is known for his inhuman toughness and durability. Swanson, however, managed to pick up one of the best wins of his career nonetheless, lighting his rival up to a first-round TKO victory.
The win won’t push Swanson back into featherweight title contention — he’s still only one fight removed from a stoppage loss to rising contender Giga Chikadze — but it was proof that even as he closes in on 40, he’s a tough out for any featherweight on the UFC roster. And from the sounds of it, he doesn’t plan on slowing down.
“I feel good,” he told commentator Michael Bisping post-fight. “I feel better than ever. I just needed to show it.”
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The future did not look particularly bright for Gerald Meerschaert after he was obliterated by Khamzat Chimaev in just 17 seconds at the end of 2020. Yet the American middleweight has managed to bounce back from that brutal loss in emphatic fashion.
Meerschaert was back in action in the final bout of the UFC Fight Night 199 undercard, where he weathered some adversity to submit Dustin Stoltzfus with a third-round rear-naked choke. It was his third submission victory in as many fights this year.
It remains to be seen what the 34-year-old can accomplish before he calls it a career. But one way or the other, it’s clear that his 17-second loss to Chimaev was not the end of the road. Far from it. He will enter 2022 on an impressive streak, and seems to prefer that to starting the year riding a loss.
“I ain’t mad about it,” he said in his post-fight interview with commentator Michael Bisping.
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When a fighter misses weight, they lose a portion of their purse, but they usually win their fights. At least, that’s what the stats have suggested in the past
In 2021, however, that hasn’t been the case. Fighters that missed the mark have been notably unsuccessful in the cage this year, and that trend continued at UFC Fight Night 199.
Three fighters on the card missed weight: Macy Chiasson, Sijara Eubanks, and Justin Tafa — the latter of whom is now the only fighter in UFC history to miss weight for a heavyweight fight. Of those three fighters, only Tafa was victorious, defeating Harry Hunsucker with a head-kick KO. Eubanks and Chiasson were both finished, by Melissa Gatto and Raquel Pennington respectively.
With those results, the final record for UFC fighters who missed weight in 2021 is 15-17 (per Jed I. Goodman). Hopefully, that stat—and the ever-present risk of being fined—encourages fighters to take greater care to hit their contracted weights in 2022.
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Canadian featherweight Charles Jourdain looked great in his UFC Fight Night 199 undercard fight with Andre Ewell. By the time the third round was nearing its conclusion, he seemed to be well ahead on the scorecards. He most likely could have taken his foot off the gas and still won a comfortable unanimous decision.
But that’s not what Jourdain did. Instead, the Canadian closed out the fight by unleashing a ridiculous onslaught against the cage — complete with a spinning back kick that seemingly landed flush. He left everything in the cage, and it turns out he had his reasons.
In his post-fight interview with commentator Michael Bisping, Jourdain noted that the fight with Ewell was the last on his current UFC contract and that he wanted to make a statement before entering into negotiations for a new deal.
“I gave everything I had,” he said.
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