5 takeaways from UFC Fight Night: Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev

The first UFC event of March took place in Las Vegas last night. With a lack of fanfare behind it, it's safe to say this wasn't a big show.

Despite that, UFC Fight Night: Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev did produce some talking points, as well as some good action.

While this event will fade quick in the memory, then, some repercussions could still be felt later into 2025.

Here are five takeaways from UFC Fight Night: Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev.

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#5. Chepe Mariscal needs a step up in his next fight

Given that he was 4-0 in the UFC coming into his fight with veteran Ricardo Ramos last night, the choice to put Chepe Mariscal on the prelim card was curious.

After all, the featherweight prospect had put on some wild, exciting fights since his debut in June 2023, even if he hadn't exactly been a finishing machine.

Ramos was undoubtedly his toughest test to date, though, and impressively, Mariscal stepped up to the plate.

His striking and aggression kept Ramos on the back foot throughout the fight, and he even came close to a finish at the end of the second round with a WWE-style superkick that led to a flurry of punches.

In the end, a decision win for Mariscal came as no surprise. While he might've flown under the radar somewhat, any fighter who can go 5-0 in a UFC division as deep as 145 pounds deserves some respect, and it might be time to push 'Machine Gun' into a bout with a ranked foe next time out.

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#4. Mario Pinto scored an all-time great knockout in his UFC debut

Fans hoping that newcomer Mario Pinto could breathe some new life into the UFC's thin heavyweight division might've felt disappointed after the first round of his debut last night.

Faced with a somewhat chinny, one-dimensional opponent in Austen Lane, Pinto found himself consistently beaten to the punch. He went down off a right hand at one point, and generally looked defensively porous.

That was, of course, until the second round, when he uncorked one of the best knockouts in recent memory.

A scorching left hand into an overhand right did for Lane, who was unconscious before he even hit the ground. Pinto added one extra shot, but realistically, it was pointless.

It's hard to say how far Pinto can go after this. At 10-0, the Portuguese fighter clearly has some talent, and the fact that he has a five-round win on his ledger prior to this shows some promise at least.

However, unless he tightens up that defense, the likelihood is that this knockout will be remembered more as a one-hit wonder like Brad Kohler's legendary 'Dark Ages' finish of Steve Judson than anything else.

Even if that's the case, though, Pinto's big finish will, at worst, be one of the best of 2025 - and it made him $50k richer, too.

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#3. Nasrat Haqparast and Esteban Ribovics more than earned their $50k bonus

While it ended with a semi-controversial decision, the lightweight scrap between Nasrat Haqparast and Esteban Ribovics was a well-deserved choice for last night's 'Fight of the Night' award.

The two men went to war for the full fifteen minutes of their bout, with neither backing down an inch.

Early on, it looked like Haqparast's quick hands and strong punching technique would win the day out, particularly when he targeted Ribovics' body.

However, the Argentine fighter came back with a vengeance in the final two rounds, stunning Haqparast towards the end of the second and then busting him wide open in the third.

It felt like 'El Gringo' had probably done enough to win, but instead, two of the judges went for Haqparast, handing him a razor-close split decision.

Realistically, this was one of those fights that neither fighter really lost, though. Haqparast's five-fight win streak may well move him towards the top fifteen now, while, based on what we've seen, Ribovics is likely to develop into one of the UFC's best action fighters.

On a lower-end event like this, then, this fight was absolutely perfect.

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#2. Brundage vs. Marquez was as good as it could've been in the circumstances

There weren't exactly many high hopes for last night's co-headliner. After all, both Cody Brundage and Julian Marquez were coming into the fight on winless runs, and Marquez had taken the bout on late notice.

Essentially, the best that UFC fans could hope for was a wild brawl with an exciting finish, and thankfully, the two middleweight journeymen delivered just that.

Wild exchanges of huge punches filled the fight, with Marquez landing the first major blow, knocking out Brundage's mouthpiece.

Brundage was able to survive, though, and in a crazy shootout that would've made Max Holloway proud, he eventually hurt 'The Cuban Missile Crisis' badly.

A brutal right hand sent Marquez down and while it didn't finish him outright, he never truly recovered and succumbed to more heavy blows moments later.

Realistically, this fight surpassed all expectations going in, and was the kind of fare that deserved a bonus award in its own right - even if it wasn't the 'Fight of the Night'.

Fans can only hope that both Brundage and Marquez were paid handsomely under the table for their work. Only a fool would deny that they earned it.

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#1. Was Manel Kape's main event win tainted?

While no pre-fight guarantees were made by Dana White, last night's headliner between flyweight contenders Manel Kape and Asu Almabayev felt like a de facto title eliminator.

In the end, Kape came out firmly on top, claiming his sixth win in his last seven fights. He now hasn't lost in the UFC since March 2021, and probably does warrant a crack at 125 pound champ Alexandre Pantoja.

However, while 'Starboy' showed flashes of brilliance in the form of his high-octane striking assault, his win didn't come without some controversy.

In fact, it's arguable that the win was outright tainted by Kape's habit of swiping Almabayev's eyes with a number of open-handed strikes, something that largely went seemingly unnoticed by referee Mike Beltran.

To be fair to Beltran, in real-time the swipes were hard to spot thanks to Kape's ridiculous hand speed, although they were more noticable on slowed-down replays.

Either way, though, the fight was probably going to end badly for Almabayev. He was simply not quick enough to catch 'Starboy', nor capable of taking him down either. He was almost certainly onto a loser.

Will it be a bad look for the UFC to give Kape a title shot off the back of a win that felt a little dirty? Perhaps, but he's also the most interesting challenger out there for Pantoja right now.

With that considered, hopefully the next time he fights, the gold will be on the line.