The first UFC event of 2025 saw everything from incredible knockouts to controversial decisions and extremely sharp cuts.
Despite not being the strongest card ever seen on paper, UFC Vegas 101 kicked off the promotion's year on Saturday and it covered pretty much everything you could see from an event.
One of the most bizarre moments of the evening was when Viktoriia Dudakova, a strawweight fighter, punched her own coach after a KO loss.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
UFC referee makes big mistake in middleweight fight
A pair of fights on the main card saw a middleweight matchup between two strong strikers, Chris Curtis and Roman Kopylov.
The Russian came into the fight on the back of a split-decision victory against Cesar Almeida, which he was perhaps fortunate to win.
'The Action Man', on the other hand, looked to bounce back from a split-decision loss to Brendan Allen as he looked to climb close to the top 15 of the rankings again in the 185lb division.
In the first round, Kopylov seemed to show off his slick kickboxing, dominating the vast majority of the first five minutes despite the numbers looking extremely close.
However, Curtis showed his heart in the second round as he began to force his way into the fight with his ruthless never-give-back nature, seemingly taking the second round and making it 1-1 in the final five minutes.
Unfortunately, like many UFC events these days, this fight was clouded by a terrible mistake made by the referee in charge, Mark Smith.
After another impressive performance from Kopylov, who wobbled Curtis several times in the final round, he landed a huge head kick with just a few seconds left on the clock. Curtis fell to the ground after a brief delay, but still seemed to have his powers.
The Russian walked away thinking he had scored a walk-off KO, but Curtis was not unconscious and appeared to be trying to recover when he saw Kopylov walk away. Despite this, Mark Smith intervened and called the fight with just one second left on the clock.
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Dana White shares images of Roman Kopylov's gnarly cut
Curtis, who is usually an extremely outspoken personality, was naturally furious with the referee's decision and was in an emotional state following the controversy.
During Kopylov's Octagon interview, the damage he suffered over the three rounds became apparent as he had a huge cut above his right eye.
After the fight, UFC CEO Dana White provided a close-up view of the 32-year-old's gnarly gash with a before and after, showing the tremendous work put in by UFC doctors to stitch him up.
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“I think everything was right, everything went according to the rules, I didn't want to kill him because I didn't want to hurt him, he's a family man… So I wanted to make sure he can come back and feed his family. Kopylov said of the controversial ending.
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