Last Time In Kansas City

Edson Barboza came into this fight against Billy Quarantillo as a slight underdog, yet was still ranked #14 in this featherweight bout. At the start of the fight, the oddsmakers seemed to have gotten this correct. Quarantillo immediately shot for a takedown in the first five seconds and while it did not land, the sentiment was still there. Quarantillo was here to impose his will on the ground.

Barboza did a great job in stopping the initial wrestling and clinch exchanges. For Barboza to win, it naturally would have to come from striking. The only issue for Barboza was that Quarantillo was walking him down and cutting off the cage well. This spelled trouble, as Barboza was still landing shots but getting outworked.

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Quarantillo was putting on an insane pace to start the fight, and he kept Barboza on his back footwith that pressure, as well as a stiff jab. However, few fighters are as explosively dangerous at any time like Barboza, and when Quarantillo entered for another takedown, the Brazilian timed a knee perfectly, rendering the American unconscious.

Barboza earned Performance of the Night honors with his fade-away knee against the cage. It was a spectacular win for a fight that Barboza was being matched strike-for-strike in and another first-round KO and flashy highlight to add to his collection.

Calculated Warfare Between Holloway and Allen

The main event saw Max Holloway and Arnold Allen square off in a top five bout with big implications for the victor. The name of the game was: can Holloway continue to control the Octagon and distance, or will Arnold Allen show his power and proficiency on the feet? Well, inthe first minute, it was Allen showing he can hang with Holloway, then followed with a reduced output from Allen as the Hawaiian maintained his work rate with his legendary cardio.

Holloway continued to do what he does best and that is controlling the fight. Holloway started to find his groove as he landed almost double the number of significant strikes compared to Allen. Allen found some success with big punches, but singular shots were not going to crack the iron chin of Holloway.

READ: Where We Stand: Featherweight Division | April 2025

Allen had a very clear gameplan of walking Holloway down, but Holloway did a great job in creating space and picking his shots. Early in this bout, Holloway became the third fighter in UFC history with seven hours of Octagon time. This experience started to weigh heavy on Allen as Holloway took the first three rounds on two scorecards. 

Round three saw both fighters wearing battle scars, with Allen showing more damage. This is where Holloway started to run away with the fight. In typical Holloway fashion, the output was just too much for Allen. This led to another unanimous decision victory for Holloway but Allenshowed that he could hang with the best the division had to offer.

Royval Earns His Title Shot

Going into the matchup between Brandon Royval and Matheus Nicolau, it was rumored that whoever won this fight would have the opportunity to challenge for flyweight gold. Royval was the underdog and Nicolau was favored, as he had been on fire with four straight wins.

Sometimes the oddsmakers get it wrong. From the beginning, Royval was dominating the center of the Octagon and made it a point to put Nicolau on the run. Nicolau was always a patient fighter as stated by Michael Bisping,

“Nicolau is very patient, and sometimes patient to a fault.”

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The thing with Royval is that he throws every single shot with malicious intent. This was put on display when almost at the halfway mark of the first round, he landed a picture-perfect knee to drop Nicolau.

This knee was followed up with some of the nastiest ground-and-pound elbows, and Royval’s hand was raised. To win is ideal, but to win in a fashion like this had only meant one thing: Royval’s title shot was imminent. This would make it three in a row for Royval with two stoppages. A rematch with Pantoja was booked and this was the ticket.