UFC 318 Prelims: Vinicius Oliveira Outguns Kyler Phillips

Vinicius Oliveira is a growing problem for the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

In the top prelim of UFC 318 on Saturday at Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans, the 29-year-old Brazilian carried a five-fight win streak into his clash with Kyler Phillips, the last three of those coming in the UFC. Phillips was in control early on, sidestepping the headlong charges of “Lok Dog” and sniping him with single strikes. Oliveira’s relentless forward pressure took its toll, however, and in the second half of Round 1 he began to catch up to Phillips, tagging him with long front kicks, overhand rights and some solid punches to the chest and midsection. The horn sounded on a round that likely went to Phillips, but the momentum seemed to be slipping in the Brazilian’s favor.

Oliveira kept up the assault in Round 2 and this time found success quickly. He rocked Phillips with a pair of punches in the first 30 seconds and gave chase, blowing up “The Matrix” with punches and kicks as Phillips went careening across the cage in survival mode. Survive he did, and regrouped, but he looked tired and much the worse for wear as Oliveira continued to walk him down. An easy takedown by Oliveira with a minute to go led to more solid work, as he stood up out of Phillips’ guard to drop a couple of heavy punches before the round ended.

Round 3 offered more of the same: Oliveira charged forward, swinging haymakers with both hands, and Phillips was forced to give ground or eat the punches. Phillips was never out of the fight, and on several occasions he planted his feet and caught Oliveira with clean counter punches, but Oliveira repeatedly shrugged them off and threw more and harder punches of his own. Oliveira nailed Phillips with some heavy artillery in the final round, including a high kick to the head and a half-dozen overhand punches, but the finish eluded him. Nonetheless, Oliveira was obviously the better fighter by the time the final horn sounded, an assessment echoed by the unanimous official scores of 29-28 in his favor. With the win, Oliveira (23-3. 4-0 UFC) made further waves in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions, and is likely due for a Top 10 ranking; Phillips (12-4, 7-4 UFC) has now lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his professional career.

Related » UFC 318 Round-by-Round Scoring

Allen Defeats Vettori in Bloody Slugfest

It was billed as a middleweight grudge match and it certainly played out that way once the cage door closed, when Brendan Allen faced Marvin Vettori, in the culmination of months of back-and-forth verbal sniping between the two veteran contenders. Adding to the personal stakes were the fact that both men entered the cage on back-to-back losses, and that Allen was one of just three native Louisianans on the card.

“All In” looked close to ending the fight—and blowing the roof off the arena—early in Round 1, as he grounded Vettori, busted the Italian’s nose with a salvo of ground strikes and took his back, working for a rear-naked choke. “The Italian Dream” survived the early onslaught, gathered himself and got back to his feet in the second half of the round, at which point he did his level best to make up for lost time. Vettori snapped Allen’s head back repeatedly with his jab and had the Roufusport product backing up at the horn, and though he may not have done enough damage to win back the round, he more than regained the momentum.

A torrid Round 2 saw Allen and Vettori meet in the center of the cage and exchange blows for two straight minutes, with neither man willing to give an inch. The momentum finally began to tilt in Allen’s favor after he caught Vettori with several clean one-twos that forced him to back up and had him biting on feints. Vettori may have been the first to blink, but he showed no signs of wilting, catching Allen with clean counters twice in the final 90 seconds, and once again he appeared to be pulling ahead—or at least pulling even—by the time the round ended.

Coming on the heels of two grimly violent rounds, the final frame did not disappoint. Once again, Allen and Vettori met in the middle of the Octagon and swung away. Vettori got the better of the early exchanges, clipping Allen twice with left hooks at close range. Allen was game, continuing to stand in the pocket and trade, but Vettori matched him blow for blow and then some, and as the clock wound down under two minutes, Allen walked his man to the fence for a takedown attempt. He grounded Vettori but only for an instant, and once they popped back to their feet, it was right back to close-range bombs. Allen seemed to come on in the final 30 seconds, though whether it was enough to steal a close round was anyone’s guess. As it turned out, Allen may have had it sewn up already, as the cageside judges scored the fight for Allen by scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. The win snapped a two-fight losing streak for Allen, who elevated his record to 25-7 overall, 13-4 in the UFC; Vettori, suffering his third straight loss, fell to 19-9-1 (9-7-1 UFC).

Veretennikov Edges Past Prado

He may have made it more difficult than it needed to be, but Nikolai Veretennikov picked up his first UFC win, eking out a decision over Francisco Prado in their welterweight contest. The first bour of UFC 318 to go the distance was a wild affair, characterized by big moments of offense—and questionable strategical choices—by both men. Veretennikov (13-6, 1-2 UFC) entered the cage as a slight underdog to Prado (12-4, 1-3 UFC) but appeared to be well on his way to springing the upset in Round 1, as he slammed his way out of an armbar attempt by spiking the Argentinian on his head. Prado was clearly hurt and spent the balance of the round surviving ground-and-pound, looking both tired and compromised by the end of the first frame. When Round 2 began, Prado seemed to have recovered most of his wits and at least some of his gas, and he took advantage of an ill-advised guillotine attempt by Veretennikov to spend much of the round in top position, dropping sporadic but damaging strikes.

With the fight appearing to be either man’s for the taking heading into Round 3, both men had their moments once again, but a couple of tactical miscues by Veretennikov gave the round, and potentially the fight, to Prado. A spinning kick attempt early in the round and, later, another guillotine attempt, conspired to bring the fight to the canvas under Prado’s control multiple times. Prado capitalized, taking Veretennikov’s back and keeping him on the defensive, even if he did not inflict much damage. The cageside judges had their work cut out for them, and rendered the verdict in favor of Veretennikov by split tallies of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29. The win represented Veretennikov’s first Octagon triumph after one unsuccessful try on Dana White's Contender Series and two in the UFC; Prado’s 1-3 UFC mark now includes two straight losses since moving up from the lightweight division.

Gautier Overwhelms Valentin

Ateba Abega Gautier (8-1, 2-0 UFC) continued to advertise his presence in the middleweight division, this time with a first-round TKO of Robert Valentin that will go down as one of the most lopsided UFC bouts of 2025. Valentin (10-6, 0-3 UFC) engaged willingly at the outset, but once he encountered Gautier’s blistering speed and power, the rout was on. Gautier hurt Valentin with several punch combinations, leading the Swiss fighter to slip, climb back up and scamper off in near-total retreat. Valentin then made the noble, if questionable choice to regroup near the fence and motion Gautier onward. The Cameroonian by way of England obliged, stepping into the pocket and dropping him with a flurry of punches, ending with several hammering right hands in a row. Valentin wilted at the base of the cage and referee Herb Dean mercifully stepped in to halt the beating at just 1 minute, 10 seconds of Round 1.

Dulatov Snipes Fugitt

The UFC debut of Islam Dulatov went smooth as silk, as the Chechen-born German put away a game Adam Fugitt with a deadly accurate left hook and an even sharper follow-up coffin nail in the first round of their welterweight prelim. Dulatov (12-1, 1-0 UFC) entered the Octagon as one of the bigger betting favorites of the night and the fight bore that out. Fugitt (10-5, 2-3 UFC) had immediate trouble contending with the speed and accuracy of Dulatov. To his credit, Fugitt gave himself every chance to pull off the upset, marching forward and throwing hard strikes, including a couple of big head kick attempts. As Dulatov continued to outclass Fugitt on the feet, the American looked to negate the speed disparity by pinning Dulatov against the fence, but he escaped and punished subsequent clinch attempts with hard knees up the middle. The end came when Dulatov met the onrushing Fugitt with a flush left hook to the jaw, dropping him in a daze. Dulatov then launched a standing-to-ground bomb of a right hand that knocked Fugitt all the way out and half the way back to the land of the living. Referee Mike Beltran was on the spot in a flash, the TKO coming at 4:06 of Round 1.

Crute Taps Out Prachnio

Jimmy Crute (13-4-2, 5-4-2 UFC) righted the ship in emphatic fashion, using savvy, persistence and his trademark horsepower to submit Marcin Prachnio (17-9, 4-7 UFC) in the first round of their light heavyweight undercard attraction. “The Brute” who through a mix of underwhelming performances and bad luck had gone 0-3-2 in his last five fights, managed to snap that miserable streak, but Prachnio made him work for it. The Polish kickboxer’s stance-switching and arsenal of unorthodox strikes made takedown entries awkward early, but Crute began to force the issue midway through the round. Crute brought the fight to the ground for good with a nice hip throw, and isolated an limb for an armbar as Prachnio turtled up. From there it was a race to the horn, as Prachnio gutted his way through an extended sequence of adjustment while Crute did his best to get the tap. That tap finally came at 4:42, with Prachnio’s arm hyperextended at an alarming angle. Referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in to save Prachnio, as Crute jumped up to celebrate his first win in nearly five years.

Spann Strangles Brzeski

The Ryan Spann experiment at heavyweight picked up positive momentum, as he dominated Lukasz Brzeski on the ground en route to a first-round submission win. Spann (23-11, 9-6 UFC UFC) came up short in his heavyweight debut against Waldo Cortes-Acosta in a flat showing, but there was no sign of the tentative “Superman” on Saturday. Spann grounded Brzeski (9-7-1, 1 NC; 1-6 UFC) immediately with a powerful double-leg takedown. The Texan kept up the pressure, chaining various submission attempts as Brzeski struggled to survive, including two different arm-triangle choke setups, but in the end he went with his signature move. As Brzeski stood near the fence, Spann grabbed a front headlock and cinched up a guillotine choke—the 10th such finish of his career—eliciting the tap at 2:37 of Round 1.

Ferreira Armbars McVey

Brunno Ferreira (14-2, 5-2 UFC) continued to defy being pigeonholed as a one-dimensional slugger, picking up his second straight submission win at the expense of the debuting Jackson McVey (6-1, 0-1 UFC). McVey, who had had two different opponents fall through within the last month, finally made his first UFC walk, but things went sideways quickly from there. Awkwardness was the order of the day, as the stocky Brazilian and lanky Missourian engaged in several tentative exchanges on the feet in the early going. The fight made its way to the ground in equally strange fashion; Ferreira stalled midway through a spinning strike and effectively gave McVey his back standing. The ensuing scramble, however, saw Ferreira sweep McVey, at which point he snared him in an armbar. McVey was tapping before Ferreira could even finish going belly-down, and referee Kerry Hatley intervened at 3:35.

Judice Guts Caliari

In the women’s flyweight opener, native Louisianan Carli Judice (5-2, 2-1 UFC) outboxed Nicolle Caliari (8-3, 0-2 UFC) for two increasingly lopsided rounds before shutting down the show with a nasty knee to the body. The burly Brazilian tried repeatedly to slug her way into range and haul Judice to the canvas, but had no answer for her opponent’s speed, reach and superior footwork. Judice pitched a near shutout against Caliari’s takedowns, barely touching the ground despite eight attempts. She nearly closed her Caliari’s right eye with her accurate jab and appeared to be well on her way to a one-sided decision early the third round when she met her onrushing foe with a pinpoint knee to the liver. Caliari collapsed to the ground, unable to go on, and after a few desultory follow-up hammerfists, referee Bassel Mahgoub stepped in for the save at 1 minute, 30 seconds of Round 3.