5 biggest winners from UFC Vegas 32: Cory Sandhagen vs. T.J. Dillashaw

#4 Adrian Yanez – defeated Randy Costa

Adrian Yanez impressed hugely in his win over Randy Costa

Although it didn’t win the Fight of the Night award, Adrian Yanez’s clash with Randy Costa was probably the wildest fight on offer at UFC Vegas 32, as the two men went toe-to-toe until Yanez eventually finished Costa off in the second round.

This was one of the show’s best comeback wins, as Yanez was taking a beating in the first round, with Costa keeping him firmly at the end of his jab to bloody him up and wobble him a few times too.

Make it 7️⃣ in a ROW! 👊 @YanezMMA found his groove to secure the TKO win at #UFCVegas32. pic.twitter.com/HRc2CKvcuF

— UFC (@ufc) July 24, 2021

But Yanez stayed calm, and once Costa appeared to be tiring towards the end of the round, he turned up the heat, pushed forward and eventually forced him to wilt with a pretty nasty combination.

Yanez came into this fight with plenty of hype as one of the UFC bantamweight division’s brightest prospects, and not only did he live up to that hype, he’s now 3-0 in the octagon overall.

There are still tons of question marks around him – we’ve now seen him fight through adversity, but he still hasn’t gone the distance, and we haven’t really seen him tested on the ground at all yet. However, it’s clear that he has a lot of talent, and at the age of 27, he’s probably just reaching his athletic prime.

Hopefully this win means that the UFC puts him against a higher-ranked opponent next time, because on this display he’s earned a shot.

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#3 Raulian Paiva – defeated Kyler Phillips

Raulian Paiva was able to secure a semi-controversial win over Kyler Phillips

One of the more controversial fights at UFC Vegas 32 saw Raulian Paiva awarded a majority decision win over Kyler Phillips in a bantamweight clash. Whether the Brazilian truly deserved the nod is up for debate, but the fact that he picked up the victory makes him one of last night’s big winners.

A former flyweight, Paiva came into the fight as a big underdog, which was understandable given how good Phillips had looked in his last appearance - a win over Song Yadong. And early on, it looked like the bookmakers had it right.

Phillips hurt Paiva on numerous occasions in the first round, and came very close to finishing him off late on. In fact, had the round been maybe thirty seconds longer, the fight likely would’ve been stopped.

But Paiva managed to survive, and with Phillips beginning to slow down, the Brazilian fought his way back into the clash, just about edging the second round and then probably taking the third round too.

Round of Applause for these Bantamweight prospects 👏 #UFCVegas32 pic.twitter.com/ExB2ymII2C

— UFC (@ufc) July 25, 2021

It should’ve been enough to net him a draw – any competent judge probably should’ve seen the first round as a 10-8 for Phillips – but incredibly, Paiva actually came away with 29-28 scores from two of the judges.

The nature of this win means he won’t be moving into the top ten at bantamweight – he may not even leapfrog Phillips at #14 – but it was promising for his UFC career as a 135lber going forward.