Last night (Sat., June 20, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned home to Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, for UFC Vegas 119. Though we’re still in the midst of UFC White House fallout, this was one of the best “Fight Night” main events of the year! Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Manel Kape had real history behind it, serious title implications, and was an electric matchup of ace strikers — you can’t ask for much more in the Apex! The rest of the card, meanwhile, was thoroughly decent with a few quality new debutants mixed in.
Let’s take a look back over the best performances and techniques of the evening:
Title Shot Secured
It wasn’t easy, but Kape earned his revenge on Kyoji Horiguchi.
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For most 12 minutes, Horiguchi demonstrated why he’s such a remarkable fighter. At range, he hammered Kape’s mid-section with long, snapping kicks. In the pocket, he routinely struck first and disappeared, landing the better shots. When Kape did try to surge forward, Horiguchi would time him with hard counter punches that wobbled his opponent more than once. Finally, Horiguchi’s wrestling was outstanding, and he spent nearly the entire second round in top position.
It still wasn’t enough.
Avoiding Kape’s power is an all-or-nothing affair. Horiguchi fought tremendously right up until Kape floored him with a right hook, and then the fight was over. “Starboy” jumped on his rival, slamming home a nasty uppercut from the turtle position. Horiguchi slumped forward directly onto his own face, and the fight was called immediately. Credit to Kape, he made the right call in round three by really upping the action. Even though his pressure didn’t necessarily work in itself, it created more exchanges and allowed the counter shot to land.
Depending on the Flyweight title timeline, Kape vs. Joshua Van would be an incredibly appealing matchup. If Alexandre Pantoja is ready to go before that fight materializes, Kape will be plenty worthy of facing the winner.
Weirdest Finish Of The Year?
Ion Cutelaba was fighting smart … relatively.
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“The Hulk” is not known for his game-planning prowess. This is the man who lost to Magomed Ankalaev by pretending to get hurt, after all. So, with that in mind, Cutelaba was doing decent work against Navajo Stirling for most of the fight! For a fairly limited fighter, Cutelaba was able to consistently create wrestling exchanges, threaten a couple submissions, and land enough strikes to keep Stirling honest on the feet.
There was a wide technical gap in the striking, of course, as Stirling was much sharper with his long range punching and picked his shots beautifully, but this was a gritty fight until the finishing moments. In the very last sequence, Cutelaba wrestled his way into good position. Then, Stirling turned the tables with a takedown of his own, and … Cutelaba just collapsed? Sitting with his back to the fence, Cutelaba stopped trying to move and let Stirling elbow him until the referee intervened.
It was seriously bizarre to see a longtime vet just fall apart in the middle of a competitive fight.
Regardless, Stirling has now won five straight bouts inside the Octagon. The kickboxer is a bright prospect and ready for a ranked opponent, though he’s clearly still filling in the gaps and shouldn’t be rushed to the very top just yet.
Twister!
Murtazeli Magomedov definitely impressed in his quick debut submission of Melsik Baghdasaryan.
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The duo were quick to exchange, as Baghdasaryan walked right into the pocket, and Magomedov was happy to meet him! Before too long, however, Magomedov changed levels, dragged his foe to the floor, and quickly moved into the back. With the body triangle in place, Baghdasaryan tried to spin into guard and instead found himself tapping out!
The whole fight lasted 77 seconds.
The twister that finished Baghdasaryan is known as both the Scottish twister and Japanese twister, depending on whether you’d like the credit Stevie Ray or a multitude of Japanese athletes. Either way, it’s much more subtle than the classic variation, which pretty much demands the victim make a bad mistake (reaching for the head while in single-leg back mount). For the Scottish/Japanese twister, conversely, the defending fighter need only fail to notice that the top leg of the body triangle is dangling between their own feet.
That small detail turns a great escape into a checkmate.
Featherweight Lokdog Arrives
Whether at Bantamweight or 145 pounds, Vinicius Oliveira is a physical force.
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From the first bell, “Lokdog” was pressuring Andre Fili, forcing his back towards the fence. Oliveira has a wild and loose style, and one aspect of his offense is a willingness to kick from very close to his opponent. He ate some jabs for his efforts, but Oliveira landed a ton of low kicks from within the pocket. Fili had a strong moment midway through the first with some heavy body kicks of his own, producing visible agony from the Brazilian.
Outside of that rough minute or two, Oliveira just kept building. He would ignore Fili’s success and counters to keep slugging, and he made it a point to hit the body frequently as Fili covered up high. Between the low kicks and body shots, Fili’s counter punches started slowing, allowing “Lokdog” to safely up the pressure. By the end of the second, he was outright teeing off with a nasty mix of uppercuts, chopping elbows, and digging body shots.
This divisional debut serves as proof that Oliveira’s absurd physicality and punishing power hold up at 145 pounds, though it remains to be seen if he’s able to score a ranking in his new class.
Bantamweight’s Only Prospect
The male 135-pound division is an abundance of riches. Every couple months, some new young talent debuts on the “Prelims” and looks like a future title challenger. Globally, there are world-class athletes spread around various promotions, top wrestling aces and nasty knockout strikers. Sadly, that’s far from the case in the women’s Bantamweight ranks, undoubtedly the most stagnant division in the sport.
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Bia Mesquita is a breath of fresh air.
Make no mistake, the undefeated jiu-jitsu ace is not a perfect fighter. She started the fight off by getting rocked, then Melissa Mullins made the highly questionable decision to follow her to the canvas. Almost immediately, Mesquita was able to lock down the position defensively then get aggressive, quickly isolating the arm for her third-straight UFC tapout win.
Here’s the thing: there’s nobody else. Mesquita will have a ranking by her name in a few days, and the division is wide open. “The Lady Goat” doesn’t have to be a perfect fighter to make a run at UFC gold, not when two more wins could lock down a title shot.
Additional Thoughts
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Christian Rodriguez defeats Hyder Amil via first-round guillotine choke: Rodriguez is a smooth operator. Amil’s offense can be overwhelming, yet Rodriguez was consistently able to see everything coming and counter with accurate punches or well-timed takedowns. He was a step ahead of Amil throughout the first when he lined up a beautiful head kick that landed right on the face! Amil showed real heart to survive and try to wrestle up, but his brain was scrambled, leaving him unable to defend the high-elbow guillotine that ultimately put him to sleep. “CeeRod” had previously lost two straight — talk about a stylish rebound!
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Levan Chokheli defeats Leon Shahbazyan via first-round knockout (highlights): How often do you see a fighter completely destroyed by the very first low kick landed? Shahbazyan reacted very poorly to Chokheli’s fight-opening blast to the calf, shelling up and inviting further offense. One more low kick and a follow-up flurry sealed the deal in just 22 seconds … telling us very little about both men. Is Chokheli the best thing since sliced bread? Is Shahbazyan woefully unprepared for UFC competition? Both or neither? We won’t really know until their next bouts, but for now, it’s two extremely different starts to a pair of UFC careers.
