Merab Dvalishvili officially connected with 12 of his 24 takedown attempts against Casey Kenney, joining Georges St-Pierre, Demetrious Johnson, and Colby Covington as the only fighters in UFC history to land 10+ takedowns in a fight on two or more occasions. His 12 takedowns in the same fight broke the UFC/WEC bantamweight record, 11, set by Dvalishvili himself and Frankie Saenz.
UFC Rio Rancho now holds the curious distinction of being the only event to have two fights on the same card end in disqualification. Even more unlikely, both DQs were the results of illegal knees.
In a fight that he might have won, Michel Pereira delivered an ill-advised knee to a downed Diego Sanchez. The resulting cut on Sanchez’s head and loss of vision awarded the local favorite the victory.
Similarly, Kazula Vargas was well on his way to spoiling the debut of Brok Weaver when a similar action gave the victory to the Dana White Contender Series alum. For his part, Weaver was unhappy, even in victory.
“A win like that is a loss in my book,” he would say backstage. “I hold nothing against Vargas. The knee? Heat of the moment, you know? I’ve been in the moment. I’ve kneed people down. It happens sometimes. I lost tonight. I just got paid good.”
