5 Biggest Winners From UFC Vegas 101: Dern vs. Ribas 2

Published by Paul Browne on January 12, 2025

The UFC Kicks Off 2025 With A Bang

The first UFC event of the new year is officially in the history books, and despite the line-up for UFC Vegas 101: Dern vs. Ribas 2 perhaps not standing up on paper against the massive pay-per-view offering that awaits fans next weekend, the event delivered more than it’s fair share of thrills, spills and dramatic finishes.

With nine of the fights being finished inside the distance (including five of the six main card bouts), plenty of those in action at the Apex this past weekend will have cause to pleased with their start to 2025.

Let’s take a look at 3 of the biggest winner from UFC Vegas 101: Dern vs. Ribas 2.

Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern’s impressive armbar victory over Amanda Ribas in the main event places her in a strong bargaining position in the women’s strawweight division going forward. This fight showcased the improvements Dern has made since the pair first crossed paths early in their UFC careers back in 2019.

Ribas emerged victorious after that first bout, with BJJ phenom Dern’s lack of footwork and her inability to get the fight to the ground being exploited by the Brazilian en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Dern looked much-improved this time around and put Ribas away in the third round. With strawweight champion Zhang Weili about to put her belt on the line against Tatiana Suarez, Dern looks to be coming into winning form at just the right time for a possible title charge to face the winner.

“I just want to get another win in a row” she told Michael Bisping after the fight. “I don’t know who that will be (against), I would hope someone in front but I’ve fought almost everyone in front. The only one (I haven’t fought) I think is Tatiana and she’s going for the belt, so I don’t know. We’ll see”.

Marco Tulio

Brazilian middleweight Marco Tulio got his UFC career off to a dream start, knocking out Iho Potieria just over three minutes into the opening round.

“Matuto” extended his winning streak to nine with six of those victories coming by way of knockout. The Chute Boxe Diego Lima representative becomes the fourth Brazilian fighter to beat Potieria in the last two years, a run of results which followed the Ukranian’s victory over MMA legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 283.

The 30-year-old Sao Paulo native has appeared on the past two seasons of Dana White’s Contender Series. A decision win over Yousri Belgaroui in Augist of 2023 wasn’t enough to convince UFC president Dana White to hand him a contract, but he left no doubt during his second appearance on the show last August when he finished Matthieu Duclos to seal the deal.

Jacobe Smith

Also victorious in his UFC debut was Jacobe Smith who moved to 10-0 in spectacular fashion. “Cobe” needed just 73 seconds to flatline Preston Parsons in their welterweight encounter

“This kinda went according to plan” said Smith during the post-fight press conference. “The game plan for me was to throw straight. My right hand was gonna put him out, right? The right hand touched him and shocked him and I noticed that he wasn’t out, but I noticed he wasn’t responding the same way (as he was) earlier in the fight when the right hand landed so I followed up with a hook and it was all she wrote”.

Punahele Soriano

The main card opened with a bang as Punahele Soriano continued his successful start to life in the welterweight division by knocking out Uros Medic in just 31 seconds. “Puna” picked up his second consecutive victory (and his first finsih) since dropping down from 185 lbs and revealed afterwards his apprehension at facing such a dangerous opponent in Medic.

“Any time you put in the work and it pays off, it’s always a great feeling” said Soriano during the post-fight press conference. “That’s the biggest indication that you’re doing the right work. But I feel like I just wasn’t tied down to the results this time. I knew regardless of whatever happened, backstage, I was visualizing getting hit with his uppercut. He knocked (his last opponent) out with the uppercut. Like, ‘Damn, that could be me tonight.’ A couple times, I visualized that. But I wasn’t being tied down to the results. I knew that regardless, I had my wife and my dog, my (upcoming) baby to go home and they’re going to love me regardless of the outcome.”

Cesar Almeida

Glory kickboxing veteran Cesar Almeida picked up his third victory in four UFC appearances and also earned himself a performance of the night bonus after his devastating finish over Abdul Razak Alhassan.

Almeida had to weather an early storm from “Judo Thunder”and in the final minute of the opening round a perfectly-timed counter left hand found the sweet spot on Alhassan’s chin, and will likely go down as the first contender for 2025’s “knockout of the year”.