5 biggest winners from UFC 269: Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier

#2. Charles Oliveira – defeated Dustin Poirier to defend the UFC lightweight title

Charles Oliveira cemented himself as the world's best lightweight thanks to his win over Dustin Poirier

On any other UFC show, Charles Oliveira would undoubtedly be considered the biggest winner of the night. The UFC lightweight champ throttled top contender Dustin Poirier in the third round of their headline clash, cementing himself as the world’s best 155lber in the process.

This was a hugely impressive showing from Oliveira because he had to weather quite the storm to find victory.

‘Do Bronx’ seemed content to strike with Poirier in the first round – landing some nasty shots to the body in particular. However, it seemed to be a mistake once ‘The Diamond’ began to connect with his power punches, dropping the champion at one point.

Showing the same toughness that allowed him to come back from the brink to defeat Michael Chandler at UFC 262, Oliveira hung in there. When he secured a takedown in the second round, the tide turned.

He dropped big elbows to break Poirier down slowly. In the third round, he wasted no time in taking the back of ‘The Diamond’ before choking him out.

Who is next for Oliveira? It seems like Justin Gaethje, but in reality, the biggest test for him may be Islam Makhachev – assuming the Dagestani can get past Beneil Dariush.

Either way, right now ‘Do Bronx’ is not only at the top of his game, but he’s clearly the best lightweight on the planet right now. This win over Poirier only proved it further.

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#1. Julianna Pena – defeated Amanda Nunes to win the UFC bantamweight title

Julianna Pena's win over Amanda Nunes stands up with the biggest upsets in UFC history

Naturally, the biggest winner at UFC 269 was Julianna Pena. After she produced one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, who else could be considered for this spot?

Literally nobody was giving ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ a chance at dethroning Amanda Nunes for the UFC bantamweight title. Not only was Nunes considered the greatest female fighter of all time, but she’d also destroyed seemingly better fighters than Pena, who had lost to Germaine de Randamie just two fights ago.

However, Pena didn’t pay any attention to that kind of talk. She’d been promising to pull off the upset in the months leading up to the fight. Sure enough, she backed her talk up inside the octagon.

It was the second round where the magic happened. The first round was tough for Pena, but in the second, she decided to throw caution to the wind and exchange with ‘The Lioness’ in a move that felt like suicide.

However, not only was Pena tough enough to take Nunes’ shots, she also appeared to possess the faster hands. She tagged ‘The Lioness’ with a series of jabs that set up a combination to hurt her.

When she managed to drag Nunes to the ground, taking her back and applying a rare no-hooks choke, the upset was complete as the champion submitted.

It’s literally hard to put into context how big of an upset this was. There are tons of questions coming out of it too; will Nunes take the title back in a rematch? If she doesn’t, how long will the Pena era last for?

Regardless of those, though, it’s impossible to take anything away from ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ and this accomplishment. This was not just one of the biggest wins of 2021, it was one of the biggest in UFC history.