On Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, two UFC Bantamweight title fights featured heavy favorites … Both of which walked out with a submission victory, setting a new, and almost impossible standard for their divisions to follow. Here’s how the action played out.

Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O’Malley

Merab Dvalishvili is literally a machine. That is his nickname, and that is what he is, a fighting machine. Through three rounds, against a fully adjusted and healthy Sean O’Malley, Merab Dvalishvili systematically picked apart the former champion, landing 5 takedowns and 141 significant strikes, before getting a submission victory with a modified D’arce choke. O’Malley, who touted a new gameplan, cleaner lifestyle, and fully healthy body, looked good through the first round of the fight before Merab’s pressure started to wear on him. No matter of adjusting was going to change the fact that Merab Dvalishvili is one of the greatest wrestlers in the world, and 9 months of time is not enough time for any man, let alone Sean O’Malley to make such a drastic improvement. This time, the fight seemed to be even more of a wash in favor of Dvalishvili, who isn’t known for his finishes, but who got the job done inside the distance. I am personally ready to call him the greatest Bantamweight of all time, but some will still disagree. It looks like a fight with Cory Sandhagen is next, a fight in which I can imagine Dvalishvili’s odds to be unbelievably high.

Juliana Pena vs Kayla Harrison

In similar fashion as the first fight I mentioned, but with a different outcome for the champion, Kayla Harrison showed off her legendary strength and grappling, as she muscled Juliana Pena down in the second round, before submitting her with 6 seconds left via a nasty kimura. The former Olympic Judo Champion then had a face-off with former champion and consensus greatest women’s fighter of all time Amanda Nunes, who congratulated Harrison on her victory. If these two were to clash in the future, it would certainly be one of, if not the biggest women’s title fight of all time. Harrison, as I mentioned in my predictions article, faced her toughest battle of the weekend not against Juliana Pena, but against her own weight cut, which she immensely struggles with as a person of her size. If she is able to make the cut and defeat Amanda Nunes, the UFC should seriously consider starting conversations about a women’s 145lb division.

Also on the card: 

• Joe Pyfer defeated Kelvin Gastelum via unanimous decision in a Middleweight bout
• Mario Bautista defeated Patchy Mix via unanimous decision in a bantamweight bout
• Kevin Holland defeated Vicente Luque by D’arce choke in round 2 of their welterweight bout, earning a performance of the night bonus
• Joshua Van defeated Bruno Silva by KO/TKO in round 3 of their flyweight bout
• Azamat Murzakanov defeated Brendson Ribeiro by KO/TKO in round 1 of their light heavyweight bout
• Waldo Cortes Acosta defeated Serghei Spivac by unanimous decision in a heavyweight bout
• Andreas Gustafsson defeated Khaos Williams by unanimous decision in a welterweight bout
• Wang Cong defeated Ariane da Silva by unanimous decision in a flyweight bout
• JooSang Yoo defeated Jeka Saragih by KO in round 1 of their featherweight bout, earning a performance of the night bonus
• Quillan Salkilld defeated Yanal Ashmouz by unanimous decision in a lightweight bout
• MarQuel Mederos defeated Mark Choinski by unanimous decision in a lightweight bout

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