Muin Gafurov suffered a memorable loss at UFC Vegas 113, one he’ll likely regret for some time.

According to Gafurov’s teammate, former bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, he only tapped out at the very last second of his fight with Jakub Wiklacz because he thought the fight had already ended. Gafurov and Dvalishvili gave their side of the story in a clip released to social media.

“I heard a bell,” Gafurov said. “I was thinking, ‘Why you not open? What the f*ck? Open!’ But it was ringing.”

Gafurov appears to suggest that he was confused as to why Wiklacz did not immediately release a tight guillotine choke as soon as the bell sounded to end Round 3, so he tapped in protest. However, replays showed Gafurov tapping out a full second before the bell could clearly be heard.

Dvalishvili attempted to clarify the situation with his interpretation of Gafurov’s explanation.

“How he’s saying, how I understand, he’s saying first he said, ‘Good,’ and then when he heard the bell, he tapped,” Dvalishvili said. “That’s unfortunate. Congratulations to Jakub. I don’t have nothing against him, he’s a good fighter, but that’s my brother Muin telling me.

“He’s never tapped to a choke, but it’s unfortunate. I just want to show you guys what happened. I hope you guys enjoyed this fight and my brother he’s going to come back.”

If there’s anyone who knows what it means to bounce back from a controversial submission, it’s Dvalishvili.

Back in April 2018, Dvalishvili made his second UFC appearance against fellow up-and-coming bantamweight Ricky Simon. Dvalishvili was winning the fight until he ended up in, coincidentally enough, a mounted guillotine in the third round. As time ticked away on the fight, Dvalishvili looked to be in trouble and may have even passed out, but the bell rang before referee Liam Kerrigan had stepped in to stop the fight.

It was only afterward that it was ruled that Dvalishvili had lost consciousness and the bout was ruled a technical submission in Simon’s favor.

Watch the incident below.

Dvalishvili and his team later attempted to appeal the result, but Kerrigan’s decision was upheld.

That would be the last loss for Dvalishvili for some team as he went on a 14-fight win streak that included four straight bantamweight championship fight victories, a streak that only recently came to an end with Dvalishvili dropping his title to Petr Yan at UFC 323.

Time will tell if Gafurov—who also missed weight for Saturday’s fight by five pounds—can enjoy a similar reversal of fortunes.

Alex Pereira has love for his former opponent, Dustin Jacoby.

On Saturday, Jacoby took on Julius Walker on the main card of UFC Vegas 113, knocking out Walker with a barrage of punches in the second round. The win was Jacoby’s third straight knockout, and while it didn’t earn him a Performance of the Night bonus, “The Hanyak” got something maybe even better: the respect of the light heavyweight champion.

Before returning to the UFC in 2020, Jacoby had a long and decorated kickboxing career for Glory. In 2014, he fought Pereira in a tournament semifinal bout at Glory 14, getting knocked out with the patented “Poatan” left hook. All these years later and Pereira and Jacoby are now both UFC light heavyweights, and Poatan gave his former foe some love after watching his knockout on Saturday.

Incredible work [Dustin Jacoby] put some respect on his name and place him in the rankings! Nostalgia from the Glory days, would love to see him in the rankings to show the evolution that has occurred in a different sport! Chama 🔥

Jacoby was previously ranked at light heavyweight, but fell out of the rankings after a 1-4 run from 2022 through 2024. Now on a three-fight winning streak and with the backing of the champ, the 37-year-old may soon find himself with a number next to his name once again.

Jon Jones may have had his final fight, although he hasn’t slammed the door shut just yet.

The former two-division UFC champ notified the promotion of his retirement this past June, which promoted Tom Aspinall from interim to undisputed champion. But after the UFC White House card was announced, Jones re-entered the UFC drug-testing pool — and has even been tested once in 2026 — in hopes of competing at that event, possibly against Alex Pereira.

With UFC CEO Dana White shutting that idea down multiple times, and Jones enjoying more of the mentoring side of the sport, Jones laid out his main goals for 2026.

“Oh, man, just a happy guy — that’s it,” Jones told Helen Yee. “And expect Jon Jones to continue to grow as a human being, expect my best, just the way I give back to others and try to impact these younger fighters.

“And I think my best self is on its way, and that’s a person without fighting, and I’m excited to meet this guy, to forge this guy.”

When asked if that meant Jones was announcing his retirement in a follow-up, Jones responded, with a lean more towards calling it a career.

“I think I could be done,” Jones said. “I’m young enough to compete with some of the best fighters in the world, I am healthy enough to compete with some of the best fighters in the world, but I’ve always been used to competing with the best in the world. So I don’t know, that’s a really high standard to uphold.

“So maybe it’s about doing it, doing it right and getting out at a really good time, you know? I don’t want to be one of these fighters that win some and lose some, and can’t remember what your name is. I met a fighter a few years ago, he didn’t what his birthday was, and that’s a lot of fighting. So I’m far from that, and I don’t want to know what that looks like.”

Jones vacated the light heavyweight title in 2020 for a move to heavyweight, and after three years out of action, “Bones” captured the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285 in March 2023 with a submission win over Ciryl Gane. Since then, Jones has competed one other time, stopping an overmatched Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November 2024. One of the all-time greats, Jones was tied to a unification bout with Aspinall, a fight White guaranteed would happen. It didn’t, and the heavyweight division hasn’t been the same since.

Kyoji Horiguchi came back to the UFC for one reason: To finally capture the promotion’s elusive flyweight title.

So far so good.

Horiguchi improved to 2-0 in his second stint with the UFC after scoring an impressive decision win over Amir Albazi in Saturday’s UFC Vegas 113 co-main event. That’s seven straight wins (excluding a no-contest) for Horiguchi now and considering his enormous success in his native Japan and his overall 9-1 record inside the octagon, he knows his in the thick of the title race.

At the UFC Vegas 113 post-fight scrum, Horiguchi was asked if he’d prefer to fight teammate Alexandre Pantoja for the belt, and he responded that he has no preference.

“I don’t care,” Horiguchi said. “I want a belt. If the champion is Pantoja, yes Pantoja. If it’s other guy, yes other guy. That’s all.”

“Of course [Pantoja gets the first shot],” Horiguchi added when asked who he’ll face if he wins the title. “He defended it many times. I think he’s a true champion. It was an accident. I think he’s a true champion.”

The “accident” Horiguchi referred to was Pantoja breaking his arm just 26 seconds into his flyweight championship bout against Joshua Van at UFC 323 n December. The freak injury stopped Pantoja’s streak of four consecutive title defenses and made Van the new champion in shocking fashion. Van’s first challenger is yet to be announced, though Tatsura Taira, Manel Kape, and Pantoja (if he heals quickly enough) are all strong candidates.

Horiguchi spoke about his time away from the UFC, and what he learned as he rose to the top of Japan’s RIZIN promotion as well as the now-defunct Bellator MMA.

“I’m better at everything,” Horiguchi said. “Fighting fear, scared, everything, I learn. That’s why I’m strong right now.”

“Soon, I will get soon, that belt,” he added when asked how it would feel to add a UFC title to his RIZIN and Bellator belts.

Horiguchi showed up to Saturday’s post-fight scrum with a noticeable hand injury. The extent of the injury is still to be determined, though Horiguchi thinks it broke during the fight. As soon as he’s healed up, he expects the matchmakers to call upon his services once more.

“I’m not sure because maybe my hand is a little broke, but when I fix this, it doesn’t matter,” Horiguchi said. “Anywhere, anytime, I can fight.”

Vinicius Oliveira suffered his first UFC loss Saturday, tapping to a rear-naked choke against Mario Bautista at UFC Vegas 113 on Feb. 8 in Las Vegas, and revealed later that night that his arm was compromised going into the first main event of his UFC career.

“Lok Dog” told Ag. Fight that he fractured the ulna bone on his right forearm on Dec. 19, 51 days prior to the event, but decided no to withdraw from the headlining match.

“I could have cancelled the fight,” Oliveira said. “I broke my arm. There wasn’t much I could do, but I decided to move forward. For a good while we trained with my arm in a cast. It was actually a bit reckless on our part. We kept it under wraps, but I was determined to fight regardless of the injury.”

Oliveira said that his performance wasn’t good as usual because the arm was hurting again in the opening round.

“I got taken down and couldn’t do the shield to get back up because that was exactly where it hurt,” Oliveira said. “I tried, but it hurt too much. I said in between round that it was hurting. We went on through the pain, but it was really bad. I started throwing jabs, but even just the movement of punching air hurt a lot.”

“Lok Dog” revealed he was given a 180-day medical suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission and “seriously needs to think” about moving up to featherweight going forward. Oliveira walks around 185 pounds when he’s off camp and had to cut nearly 50 pounds between Monday and Friday.

“It was the worst weight cut of my career because I couldn’t train properly, and that made it harder to lose the weight,” Oliveira said. “I had to train moderately. I couldn’t do cardio because any movement of my arm hurt.”

Oliveira was 4-0 in the UFC with wins over the likes of Said Nurmagomedov and Ricky Simon, plus a first-round knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series, before suffering his first defeat in nearly four years.

Mario Bautista made quick work of Vinicius Oliveira in the UFC Vegas 113 main event after he snatched a fight-ending rear-naked choke in the second round, but before setting foot in the octagon, Bautista had some… interesting words for his opponent.

A day earlier at the weigh-ins, Bautista came nose-to-nose with Oliveira, who was apparently ratcheting up the trash talk in anticipation of the fight. Bautista revealed what Oliveira said to him during the heated faceoff and his response, which apparently didn’t anger “LokDog” as much as make him laugh.

“He got close and he was like, ‘Smile while you can’ and then he just got too close,” Bautista said at the UFC Vegas 113 post-fight press conference. “I was like, ‘It seems like you want to kiss me.’ I think I broke his character. He started laughing.

“Then he said he was going to beat me worse than he did Kyler [Phillips], my training partner.”

The intensity didn’t stop when they got in the cage because Bautista says Oliveira was still talking to him when the referee brought them together in the center before the fight got underway.

Oliveira didn’t forget what Bautista said to him and he repaid the favor just before they clashed.

“Even when we faced off before our fight, he even said the same thing. ‘You want to kiss me now?’” Bautista said. “I blew him a couple of kisses before I beat him up. It’s all part of the show.”

As far as the fight goes, Bautista put on one of his most complete performances to date as he soundly beat Oliveira in every facet of the game, particularly whenever the fight hit the floor.

From some early ground-and-pound to the scramble at the close of the second round where Bautista locked up the rear-naked choke submission, he was in control from start to finish.

“It’s surreal,” Bautista said. “First main event, five-rounder against a tough opponent. Just watching his highlight reel all week, you don’t want to end up on that side. For me to come out on top, it just feels amazing.

“All those transitions. Going from the takedowns, passing, getting into that crucifix, him giving up an arm, me going for the kimura, him kind of bailing out, jumping on his back, throwing on that rear-naked [choke]. Just kind of having all these sequences and flow in my game. It got me the finish.”

Following the conclusion of the main event, Oliveira said he actually suffered a broken arm in training and that affected his ability to prepare properly, which likely played a part in the massive weight cut he endured prior to Saturday night.

That may be true, but Bautista scoffed at Oliveira explaining away his loss, especially when he went through an injury of his own prior to one of the biggest wins of his career.

“That sucks,” Bautista said about Oliveira’s injury. “Leading into my Patchy [Mix] fight, I popped a rib … I still beat the shit out of him. I don’t care about your excuses. It’s part of the game.”

With the win, Bautista is back on track with a 9-1 record overall in his past 10 fights and he’s definitely looking up the rankings for his next fight.

Ideally, Bautista wants a rematch against Cory Sandhagen after he accepted a short-notice opportunity to face the one-time bantamweight title challenger in his octagon debut. Sandhagen finished with a first round submission in their initial encounter and now Bautista wants to run it back with more experience on his side this time.

“I think it goes completely different,” Bautista said about a rematch against Sandhagen. “I’ve had so much more experience. That was maybe 10, 12 fights ago, I’ve had a lot of experience in that time. He’s just kind of hanging out in that spot. He can’t break that championship spot.

“So I think it would make for a great fight and give me that opportunity to see where I can go.”

Mario Bautista started his 2026 campaign with a statement performance.

If there were any doubts that Bautista is in the title mix at 135 pounds, he answered them in emphatic fashion with a second-round submission of Vinicius Oliveira in Saturday’s UFC Vegas 113 main event. Bautista dominated the majority of the action, neutralizing Oliveira and then pulling off a gorgeous transition into a rear-naked choke in Round 2 to force the tap.

With the win, Bautista is now 9-1 dating back to 2021 and adds “Lok Dog” to a hit list that includes the legendary Jose Aldo and former Bellator champion Patchy Mix.

Pros were blown away by Bautista’s performance on social media. Former UFC fighter David Michaud didn’t mince words, stating plainly, “Hell yeah, Mario beat the piss outta that guy.”

UFC stars including Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Henry Cejudo, and Belal Muhammad also spoke highly of Bautista’s one-sided win.

Check out more reactions from social media below.

Mario Bautista had something to prove in the UFC Vegas 113 main event and he tore through Vinicius Oliveira inside two rounds to send a resounding message to the rest of the bantamweight division.

After his eight fight win streak was stopped in a decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov in his previous outing, Bautista came back better than ever on Saturday as he dealt with an aggressive and explosive opponent in Oliveira. From the start, Bautista was in complete control on the feet and on the ground but his grappling really overwhelmed Oliveira, who struggled to stay off his back.

The end came after Bautista got caught up in a scramble searching for a submission and ultimately snatched the back to lock on a rear-naked choke, which forced Oliveira to tap immediately. The stoppage happened at 4:46 in the second round with Bautista getting the submission win.

“I think he seen my previous fight and thought that was a hole of mine,” Bautista said about Oliveira’s willingness to grappling with him. “I was able to use my wrestling to get the job done. That’s John Crouch jiu-jitsu right there. That crucifix. That’s awesome. I was looking for that kimura, took the back instead … [the rear naked choke] was locked in. I had it fully locked in. He wasn’t going anywhere.”

Some early striking exchanges gave way for Bautista to close the distance and work from the clinch before snatching a really slick takedown. Oliveira briefly looked for a submission attempt from the bottom but Bautista was quick to escape and maintain his top position on the canvas.

Bautista was aggressive with his ground and pound throwing haymakers and then dropping some vicious elbows. When he finally got a restart, Oliveira tried to explode with some strikes of his own but Bautista was quick to counter and bring him crashing back to the ground again.

As time ticked away in the second round, Oliveira was holding his hands to his side, already showing signs of exhaustion. That led to another scramble with Bautista landing on top and he was quick to shread Oliveira’s defense before throwing a barrage of submissions.

From a kimura and then transitioning to take the back, Bautista was attacking relentlessly before snatching a rear-naked choke that got locked on quick. A split second later, Oliveira was tapping out with a grimace on his face that told the whole story for the fight.

Despite a valiant effort against Nurmagomedov in 2025, Bautista still suffered a loss but he proved that he remains an elite bantamweight with his performance at UFC Vegas 113. Now he’s hoping to move back up the rankings while potentially avenging an earlier loss in his UFC career.

“I want to get back into the top five,” Bautista said. “I think the next person, Cory Sandhagen — give me that rematch. You’re in the way to the title for me. I need that rematch. Let’s get it done.”