The judges had an easy assignment during the preliminary card Saturday at UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Borralho in Paris, France.
All seven fights ended inside the distance and only two made it out of the first round.
Ante Delija broke down in tears after making good on his UFC debut. The Croatian heavyweight made a statement with a first-round knockout of top-10 staple Marcin Tybura, avenging a previous loss from a decade ago.
Delija sustained a nasty broken leg when the pair met at an M-1 Global event in 2015, which resulted in him missing almost three years as he recovered from the injury.
The former PFL tournament champion is 13-3 since the injury and 8-1 since 2022 with notable wins over Renan Ferreira, plus UFC veterans Maurice Greene and Yorgan De Castro.
He dropped Tybura with a hard left shovel uppercut two minutes into the fight and that was all she wrote.
Sam Patterson extended his winning streak in the welterweight division with a first-round technical knockout of Trey Waters in a matchup of two of the tallest 170-pounders in mixed martial arts.
The six-foot-three Patterson, despite being known more for his submission skills, rocked the six-foot-four Waters repeatedly with right hands until Waters was out on his feet and the referee stopped the action three minutes into the opening round.
Patterson has now won four consecutive fights in the first round since moving up from the lightweight division. The 29-year-old from England was coming off a March knockout of the previously undefeated Danny Barlow.
The preliminary card was headlined by France’s Oumar Sy thrilling the home crowd and finishing Brendson Ribeiro in under five minutes.
Sy bounced back from a June loss to Alonzo Menifield and improved to 12-1 as a professional with a ground-and-pound stoppage win over Ribeiro, who has now lost four of his past six bouts since the start of 2024.
Kaue Fernandes chopped Harry Hardwick down like a tree, battering the UFC newcomer’s legs with low kicks until the short-notice lightweight matchup was stopped midway through the opening round.
Fernandes was originally scheduled to face France’s Fares Ziam, who withdrew from the event earlier this week as he mourns the death of his grandmother.
England’s Hardwick is the reigning Cage Warriors featherweight champion but moved up in weight to take this fight and get a shot in the UFC. Hardwick was unbeaten in his past nine outings prior to Saturday.
Brazil’s Fernandes has now won three in a row after coming off back-to-back wins over Mohammad Yahya and Guram Kutateladze.
Robert Bryczek earned the biggest win of his career with a third-round technical knockout of 27-fight UFC veteran Brad Tavares. Bryczek underwhelmed in his UFC debut 19 months ago, losing a decision to Ihor Potieria, but the 35-year-old from Poland looked like a more poised and refined fighter in his second UFC appearance.
Tavares has shared the Octagon with many of the best middleweights of his era, including former champions Dricus Du Plessis, Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker and holds a win over Chris Weidman, but the 37-year-old Hawaiian is 2-5 in the past three years, with three of those losses coming via TKO.
Rinat Fakhretdinov put a halt to Andreas Gustafsson’s momentum and handed the aggressive Swede the first stoppage loss of his career. Fakhretdinov needed only 54 seconds to rock Gustafsson and overwhelm him with follow-up punches as Gustafsson turtled up along the cage.
Fakhretdinov has one of the better records in the UFC welterweight division. The 33-year-old from Moscow, Russia, is now 6-0-1 in the UFC and is unbeaten in his past 23 fights overall dating back to 2014.
American Sam Hughes kicked off the prelims with a dominant showing against Ireland’s Shauna Bannon. Hughes, 33, is a five-year UFC veteran who improved to 6-2 over her past eight bouts after locking in a second-round rear-naked choke that forced a tap.
Saturday’s event took place at Accor Arena and marked the fourth consecutive September the UFC has held a Fight Night event in Paris.
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