Last night (Sat., Feb. 7, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned home to the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC Vegas 113. Luckily, the first “Fight Night” event of 2026 was a step up from the average APEX affair. There were intriguing bouts booked throughout the evening featuring some quality prospects and familiar faces alike. The night kicked off with a couple impressive comebacks on the “Prelims,” and the action remained high throughout the evening, almost all the way to the pivotal Bantamweight main event.
Let’s take a look back over the best performances and techniques of the evening:
Great Win Or Bad Cut?
I’m having a tough time making heads or tails of Mario Bautista vs. Vinicius Oliveira.
Undoubtedly, it’s a great performance and win from Bautista, who pretty much dominated the fight and won a main event without taking any hard punches to the face. There’s no question he brought a smart game plan and excellent transitional work to the cage with him, getting Oliveira to play his game and then quickly showing himself the finer man in that aspect.
All the questions surround “Lokdog.” The Brazilian made the bizarre decision of shooting just seconds into the fight against the man known to be the better grappler? Then continued to proactively wrestle? Weirder yet, Oliveira is known for his deep gas tank. He’s made a UFC career out of outlasting opposition, taking their best punches and/or takedowns early and then drowning them later.
Being an absurdly gifted athlete is Oliveira’s whole thing.
In this fight, conversely, Oliveira was exhausted just a minute into round two … and he didn’t really do that much in the first! I cannot help but think that his absurd weight cut severely drained him and robbed us of a more competitive fight. If that’s the case, it’s high time for “Lokdog” to either figure out how to cut in a healthier fashion or make the move up to 145 pounds.
Horiguchi Styles On Albazi
For the second time in three months, 35-year-old Kyoji Horiguchi absolutely styled on a top-ranked Flyweight contender.
Seriously, Horiguchi beat the brakes off Albazi and made it look pretty easy. Despite a clear size advantage and decorated wrestling pedigree, Albazi couldn’t floor Horiguchi a single time. He was forced to chase after the Karateka, and it did not at all go well for him. Horiguchi’s timing and movement patterns are so unlike everybody else that the Japanese striker was routinely able to line up hard shots that Albazi didn’t see coming and was forced to just absorb.
The damage built up quickly, and by the end of the fight, Albazi was covered in blood and had been rocked badly on multiple occasions. The finish didn’t materialize, but this was one-way traffic from pretty much the first bell.
In particular, Horiguchi’s lead hand looked great here. His jab repeatedly interrupted Albazi’s would-be pressure and stood him up tall, leaving him more vulnerable to follow-up right hand swings. As Albazi changed his guard to adjust for the jab, Horiguchi started sitting down behind wide counter left hooks that clipped the temple and did major damage.
The Flyweight division is hot right now with multiple options for champion Joshua Van’s first title defense. Given Horiguchi’s age and overall accomplishments as a world-class champion, I’m in favor of booking “The Karate Kid” for a title shot quickly while he’s still performing at such a high level — there’s no chance Van vs. Horiguchi wouldn’t be absolute fireworks.
Abort The Division
Jailton Almeida vs. Rizvan Kuniev was a horribly frustrating fight but not entirely for the reason one might expect.
Based on his pair of fights with Curtis Blaydes and Almeida, Kuniev was genetically engineered in a Russia lab to shut down the takedown attempts of elite Heavyweight wrestlers. Sadly, he was not engineered to do anything else. In this fight, Kuniev routinely shut down Almeida’s previously unstoppable double leg with absolute ease and then proceeded to do NOTHING! He spent so much time in the clinch with his forehead driven up into Almeida’s chin in perfect position to rip the liver, dig knees, break with elbows or right hands and a vast majority of the time he just … stayed there.
Almeida wasn’t much better. In the second round, for example, he landed a big calf kick that nearly knocked Kuniev to the floor and then proceeded to never throw that kick again. His right hand and front kick looked good when he threw them, which was incredibly rare. Worse yet, he would randomly just back himself into the fence and concede long periods of clinch time.
Kuniev picked up the nod, which is a big win if you look at the rankings and completely meaningless if you actually watched the fight. After those 15 minutes, who f—king cares about the judges’ scorecards? This was truly awful Heavyweight fighting just one week after the Tuivasa vs. Teixeira embarrassment at UFC 325. This division has never been worse, and there is no rebuild happening.
There is only suffering.
Tan Dan’s 500th UFC Fight
Veteran referee Dan Miragliotta celebrated his 500th appearance as a UFC ref last night in appropriate fashion: with a hilariously bad stoppage!
Dustin Jacoby vs. Julius Walker was a decent veteran vs. prospect scrap. Jacoby was clearly the better kickboxer by a significant margin and was sticking Walker with good straight punches, but Walker showed in the first round why he was a live dog with some powerful slam takedowns. It was a good display of chain wrestling and physicality from the young talent, attributes we don’t often see at 205 pounds.
Still, Jacoby was a step too far for the up-and-comer. Jacoby connected on a big right hand early in the second and then unleashed hell, putting Walker down hard with another right. Miragliotta moved in to stop the fight, pulled away at the last second, and Walker was hit another couple dozen times for his indecision. Even when Walker was turning away from the punches — a clear sign referees are supposed to look for that indicates the fight is over — Miragliotta still allowed the 7-2 professional to eat more punches.
Another good performance from Jacoby, who has won four straight, and exactly what we’ve come to expect from everyone’s favorite hallucinating referee.
Additional Thoughts
- Nikolay Veretennikov defeats Niko Price via first-round knockout (highlights): I am sad to say Price appears to be completely washed. Veretennikov entered this fight with an underwhelming 1-3 UFC record and then looked like a world beater against “The Hybrid.” He chewed up Price’s midsection with some violent clinch knees then went upstairs with a barrage of right hands and right elbows to secure a dramatic standing knockout win. Given that this is Price’s third straight defeat and fifth loss in his last six, it’s hard to really be that impressed by Veretennikov.
- Jakub Wiklacz defeats Muin Gafurov via third-round guillotine choke (highlights): We have an early candidate for Submission of the Year, and it came at the conclusion of a pretty great scrap! Gafurov started strong, pressuring forward with combinations to box up Wiklacz, who has a definite bit of Reinier de Ridder to his stand-up game (derogatory). He’s very slick on the canvas, however, and Wiklacz used a guillotine choke to reverse his way into top position in round two. He spent most of that frame in top position, threatening submissions and landing some chipping ground shots. With the scorecards tied up, Gafurov stuck to his boxing and really ripped up the body for most of five minutes. In the closing seconds, he shot for a double leg along the fence and wound up in another guillotine! Wiklacz fully committed to the squeeze and forced the tap with less than one second remaining, earning the unlikely comeback at the last second. Strange style or not, Wiklacz is now 2-0 in the UFC with a pair of wins over pretty damn good Bantamweights.
For complete UFC Vegas 113 results and play-by-play, click here.
