UFC 290 Results – Volkanovski Dominates

UFC 290 results are accounted for and here for your consideration. A stacked card which saw the unification of the featherweight title and the co-main event also had the flyweight title on the line. The event was held in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV and aired live on pay-per-view.

It was an outstanding night of action with some truly remarkable performances. Four of the fights did not even make it through the first minute of action. Upsets were had and future title fights were established. Robbie Lawler got to retire on not just a win, but a spectacular KO finish in just 38 seconds of his last octagon appearance. It may have just been the best fight card of 2023.

At the end of the Whittaker vs Du Plessis fight, the UFC brought in Israel Adesanya to try and hype up the upcoming title fight. Adesanya said a bunch of disturbing things that likely took a hit on his fan base, check the video below for the full post fight interview.

The UFC should stop bringing future opponents in to try and hype these fights as it was unnerving when Sean O’Malley did it and it was more disturbing on this go around (btw there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in human DNA). Let the fighters have their moment after these hard earned wins and find new ways to promote these future matches.

Main Event

The main event of the night saw the unification of the UFC featherweight title. Alexander Volkanovski vacated the title when he went up a weight class to face the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Although Volkanovski did very well in the fight, it was Makhachev who got the unanimous decision victory.

Meanwhile, Yair Rodriguez faced Josh Emmett for the interim featherweight title that same night. That fight also ended in a unanimous decision victory, albeit a little more one sided than the Volkanovski Makhachev fight. Now the two were slated to determine the king of the featherweight division.

There was no surprise in the game plans implemented by the two fighters. However, it appeared that Volkanovski was looking to close the distance and implement his strength in grappling to a big success. The ground and pound of Volkanovski is second to none.

Yair Rodriguez had a couple of good shots on Volkanovski but it wasn’t enough to slow the Great one’s advances. In the third round, Volkanovski caught Rodriguez with a big hook that stumbled the interim champion. Volkanovski smelled blood in the air and stayed on his opponent hitting him with a knee, a big body shot, a big uppercut and then dumping his opponent to the mat and dropping his signature ground and pound. In the end, it was Volkanovski’s night getting the TKO win over Yair Rodriguez.

C0-main Event

In the UFC 290 co-main event, Brandon Moreno looked to continue his dominance in the flyweight division. Moreno has finally put an end to the Figueiredo feud and established himself as the top of the flyweight heap.

The challenger, Alexandre Pantoja, looked to score his third victory over the champion. The two met last in May of 2018 where Pantoja scored a win by decision over Brandon Moreno. Though both fighters have undoubtedly evolved their games, Moreno was likely motivated to avenge the loss.

The fight went down as one of the best, most competitive matches in recent UFC history. At first, it appeared that Pantoja was only interested in an early stoppage, he threw everything with murderous intent at the champion. Even Moreno’s corner told him that Pantoja was gassed after the first round, possibly giving false hope to the champion.

Pantoja continued to have some success until Moreno found the timing and distance of his jab which began to dictate the striking. Pantoja was still able to find some success on the feet but ultimately his advantage was on the mat where he was able to control Moreno through much of the fight. The scorecards were wild as it was difficult to tally (48-47, 48-47, 46-49) but in the end Pantoja was crowned the new king of the flyweight division via split-decision. The remaining UFC 290 results are below.

UFC 290 Results

MAIN CARD (AIRED ON ppv through ESPN+ AT 9:00PM CDT)

• Alexander Volkanovski #c (26-2-0), (-380) vs Yair Rodriguez #ic (16-4-0, 1NC), (+290) – featherweight title bout – Volkanovski by 3rd round TKO
• Brandon Moreno #c (21-7-2), (-190) vs Alexandre Pantoja #2 (26-5-0), (+160) – flyweight title bout – Pantoja by split decision
• Robert Whittaker #2 (25-7-0), (-355) vs Dricus Du Plessis #5 (20-2-0), (+275) – middleweight bout – Du Plessis by 2nd round TKO
• Jalin Turner #11 (14-7-0), (-295), (missed weight) vs Dan Hooker #12 (23-12-0), (+245) – lightweight bout – Hooker by split decision
• Bo Nickal (5-0-0), (-1500) vs Val Woodburn (7-1-0), (+900) – middleweight bout – Nickal by 1st round KO

PRELIMS (AIRED ON ESPN & ABC AT 7:00PM CDT)

• Robbie Lawler (30-16-0, 1NC), (+185) vs Niko Price (15-7-0, 2NC), (-215) – welterweight bout – Lawler by 1st round KO
• Tatsuro Taira (14-0-0), (-900) vs Edgar Chairez (10-5-0), (+625) – catchweight bout – Taira by unanimous decision
• Yazmin Jauregui (10-1-0), (-375) vs Denise Gomes (8-2-0), (+285) – women’s strawweight bout – Gomes by 1st round KO/TKO
• Jimmy Crute #14 (13-3-1), (-140) vs Alonzo Menifield (13-4-1), (+120) – light heavyweight bout – Crute by 2nd round submission (Guillotine)

Early PRELIMS (AIRED ON UFC Fight Pass AT 5:00PM CDT)

• Vitor Petrino (9-0-0), (-265) vs Marcin Prachnio (16-7-0), (+225) – light heavyweight bout – Petrino by submission (head and arm choke)
• Cameron Saaiman (9-0-0), (-625) vs Terrence Mitchell (15-3-0), (+440) – bantamweight bout – Saaiman by 1st round KO/TKO
• Shannon Ross (13-8-0), (+120) vs Jesus Aguilar (9-2-0), (-140) – flyweight bout – Aguilar by 1st round KO
• Kamuela Kirk (12-6-0), (+130) vs Esteban Ribovics (12-1-0), (-150) – lightweight bout – Ribovics by unanimous decision

That wraps it up for the UFC 290 results. If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of our UFC MMA action (and we certainly hope you do), follow the link. Check back with us for the next UFC Saturday, July 15th when UFC legend #3 ranked Holly Holm takes on #10 ranked Mayra Bueno Silva in a women’s bantamweight bout. Holly Holm is currently featured in our Top 10 Female UFC Fighters.