UFC Vegas 119 went down last night (Sat., June 20, 2026) inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Manel Kape deliver a violent comeback knockout win over long-time foe, Kyoji Horiguchi (see it again here). In the co-main event, Navajo Stirling secured a huge technical knockout win of his own over Ion Cutelaba after an early back-and-forth brawl.
Biggest Winner: Manel Kape
Kape punched his ticket to a 125-pound title shot after pulling off a comeback win over former conquerer, Horiguchi, in “Sin City.” It was a high-paced matchup that saw Horiguchi get the best of Kape in the first two frames before ”Starboy” unleashed a powerful strike, followed by ground-and-pound to get revenge on the man who toppled him nine years ago. Now, all Kape has to do is sit back and wait to see if Joshua Van rematches Alexandre Pantoja next or if Kape gets to jump ahead of the Brazilian bomber.
Runner Up: Murtazali Magomedov, Navajo Stirling
Magomedov made a great impression in his UFC debut, submitting Melsik Baghdasaryan in the first round with the rare modified twister submission. In the process, he locked down a nice $100,000 “Performance of the Night” award, all while putting the Featherweight division on notice. He improved to 11-0 as a professional (1-0 UFC), keeping his 100 percent finish rate intact. As for Stirling, he passed perhaps the biggest test of his young career, stopping the always-tough Cutelaba in the second round. He improved his record to 10-0 and is now 5-0 inside the Octagon since making his debut out of Contender Series back in 2024. He is off to a great start and could be in the Top 15 sooner rather than later if he keeps this up.
Biggest Loser(s): Hyder Amil, Michael Aswell and Leon Shahbazyan
Both Amil and Aswell needed big wins (or at least a great performances in defeat) if they wanted any chance of holding on to their spots on UFC’s bloated roster. And both men went home losers. Amil was submitted by Christian Rodriguez in the first round, giving him his third straight loss. As for Aswell, he dropped a unanimous decision to Gaston Bolanos, giving him his second straight loss. He is just 1-3 since making the jump into the world-famous Octagon, and that simply isn’t good enough. If they don’t get cut after their latest defeats, then they will be going into their next (and perhaps final) UFC fights with immense pressure knowing that one more defeat will send them packing. As for Shahbazyan, his Octagon debut went as bad as it could have possibly went after he was stopped by fellow debutant, Levan Chokheli, who knocked him out in the first 23 seconds of the fight. That is not the first impression he wanted to make on the biggest mixed martial arts (MMA) stage of them all, so now he has a ton of pressure to deliver a win in his next bout or face exile from the Octagon before he is able to pick up any steam.
