The Real Winners and Losers From UFC Fight Night 213

UFC Fight Night 213 went down Saturday in Las Vegas, with an early 1:00pm PT start time—good news for anybody hoping to catch tonight's Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva boxing match too.

Headlining honours for the card went to featherweight contenders Calvin Kattar and Arnold Allen, who were ranked No. 5 and 6 in the weight class heading into the fight. Unfortunately, the main event ended in disappointing fashion after Kattar sustained a leg injury early in the fight.

Beyond the main event, there were no ranked fighters on the UFC Fight Night 213 bill, but that deficit was counterbalanced by some exciting finishes, much to the excitement of play-by-play commentator Brendan Fitzgerald and his colormen, former middleweight champ Michael Bisping and former bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz.

The B/R combat sports team also enjoyed the event and, as always, has you covered with a definitive list of the night's biggest winners and losers. Keep scrolling for our take, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

UFC Fight Night 213 was a rough night for legs, as two fighters left the cage with badly damaged knees—most notably Calvin Kattar.

Kattar, the UFC's No. 5 welterweight contender, met England's Arnold Allen in the card's main event. Toward the end of the first round, the American seemed to hurt himself after missing on a flying knee. He survived to the end of the round, despite an opportunistic surge from Allen, and after getting the all-clear from the doctor, returned to the center of the cage for round two. Unfortunately, his heart was stronger than his knee, and within seconds, he had collapsed to the canvas in pain, leaving Allen with a fairly disappointing TKO win because of injury.

Allen, who is now on a 10-fight streak, seemed to have plans to call out featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski in victory, but noted in his post-fight interview that the call-out wouldn't have much merit after the unfortunate end of his fight.

Kattar's was not the only leg to take a beating at UFC Fight Night 213. In the final bout of the undercard, Georgia's Roman Dolidze did what looked like serious damage to Phil Hawes' knee with a leg lock attempt. The American Hawes escaped that attempt, but was left to fight on one leg, and was swarmed and knocked senseless soon after.

It was a reminder of how dangerous this sport can be. There are a whole lot of ways to get hurt inside the Octagon.

At 6'4 and 260 pounds, Dominican heavyweight Waldo Cortes-Acosta probably does a mean cannonball at the swimming pool, but he didn't make much of a splash in his UFC debut.

The undefeated 31-year-old (8-0), who earned his contract with a first-round knockout win on Contender Series, made his first walk to the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 213, taking on Jared Vanderaa (12-9).

By Saturday, it was quite clear that Washington's Vanderaa is not really UFC quality. He was 1-5 in the promotion, with losses in his last four appearances and was, by all accounts, a layup for his debuting foe.

Unfortunately, Cortes-Acosta's performance was pretty disappointing. When it came to offense, he did little more than walk forward and wing overhands and hooks at his foe, and his defense left a lot to be desired, as he only decided to start checking leg kicks toward the end of round two—by which point his lead leg seemed to be compromised (we told you it was a bad night for legs). His showboating in round three also didn't come across well considering the fight had been pretty terrible up to that point, and that he was by no means dominating it.

Cortes-Acosta ultimately got a unanimous decision win, but it's unlikely anybody will be talking about his debut at the water cooler on Monday. Hopefully, he can show us a little more next time out.

There is a reason the UFC kicked off Saturday's main card with a light heavyweight scrap between Dustin Jacoby and Khalil Rountree.

Jacoby (18-6-1) is a former Glory kickboxer with 11 knockout wins in MMA, while Rountree (11-5) is a Muay Thai specialist with nine knockout wins—including a first-round destruction of former Glory champ Gokhan Saki. The fight had all the ingredients for an entertaining striking showdown, and that's just what we got.

While neither man hit the deck in the matchup, which was a bit unexpected, the silver lining was that we got to see them fight for 15 minutes. They entertained for the duration, throwing a combined 492 significant strikes at each other before it was over.

After three rounds, the judges had a tough job on their hands, but two of three ultimately scored the fight for Rountree for a split-decision win. He's now on a three-fight streak, and perhaps more importantly, has cemented himself as one of the most consistently exciting fighters in the light heavyweight division. He is simply must-watch TV.

It would have been hard to fault a person for skipping the UFC Fight Night 213 undercard. There were no ranked fighters or big names on the lineup, and with a 4:00 p.m. ET start time, it had a long list of Saturday afternoon activities to compete with. Some people probably just felt they had better things to do.

But anybody who tuned in for the undercard was well rewarded. What the early portion of the broadcast lacked in high-profile fighters, it made up for with finishes—five finishes in six fights, to be exact.

Twenty-four-year-old bantamweight prospect Christian Rodriguez (8-1) got the fun started in the opening bout of the night, submitting Joshua Weems (10-3), who missed weight for their fight by three-and-a-half pounds, in the first round.

After Cody Durden (14-4-1) defeated Carlos Mota (8-2) by decision in the second bout of the night, Steve Garcia (13-5) kicked off a nice streak of stoppages with a first-round TKO win over Chase Hooper (11-3-1) at featherweight.

He was followed by middleweight Junyong Park (15-5) and heavyweight Marcos Rogerio de Lima (20-9-1) submitting Joseph Holmes (8-3) and Andrei Arlovski (34-21, 2 NC), respectively.

Roman Dolidze (11-1) wrapped up the undercard by wrecking Phil Hawes' (12-4) knee with a leg-lock attempt, then knocking him out on the feet.

The drawback of all the quick finishes was we got a lot of filler in between, but the fights themselves were awesome and a great reminder that it's usually worthwhile to tune in early if you can.

Andrei Arlovski, a former UFC heavyweight champion from Belarus, has been counted out many times over the course of his career.

Yet every time it looks like he has reached the end of the road, he claws his way back to the brink of the heavyweight rankings. Case in point: when he stepped into the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 213, he was on a four-fight win streak. Pretty amazing for a 43-year-old with 56 fights—and some pretty rough losses—in the rear-view mirror.

Unfortunately for Arlovski (34-21, 2 NC) and everybody that was enjoying watching him defy father time, things took an ugly turn in his latest Octagon appearance, as he was battered to a first-round submission loss by Brazil's Marcos Rogerio de Lima. He tapped to the Brazilian's rear-naked choke at the 1:50 mark.

At 37, de Lima (20-9-1) is no spring chicken himself, but he looked much younger than Arlovski in the Octagon—faster, stronger, and certainly bigger. He's also no world-beater, with plenty of Ls on his record, which makes his quick Saturday night win look even worse for Arlovski.

Time will tell if Belarusian can pick up a few more wins before he hangs up the gloves, but it's going to be harder and harder for him to perform against younger opposition.

Chase Hooper arrived in the UFC in 2019 at just 20 years old. Within his first fight or two, it was clear that he was a great grappler with some big holes in his striking game. He seemed pretty uncomfortable on the feet and made a ton of defensive errors that probably would have cost him were he fighting better opposition.

Yet in his last couple of fights in the Octagon, Hooper (11-3-1) was starting to look a little bit better in the striking department. Not world-class, but half decent.

His striking game showed signs of regression in his UFC Fight Night 213 with Steve Garcia.

Hooper met Garcia (13-5), who dropped down to featherweight from the lightweight division, in the third bout of the undercard. The fight was a disaster for the former, as he was dropped three times and ultimately stopped after a fourth trip to the canvas—all in just 1:32.

Hooper showed commendable toughness in the fight. He wasn't knocked clean out and was doing his best to return fire until referee Herb Dean waved off the contest. But his striking offense looked rough, and his defense was even worse.

It looked like he was on the way to rounding out his game, but clearly, he's still got a lot of work to do.

Main Card

Arnold Allen def. Calvin Kattar by TKO (knee injury), 0:08, Round 2

Max Griffin def. Tim Means by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)

Waldo Cortes-Acosta def. Jared Vanderaa by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Tresean Gore def. Josh Fremd by submission (guillotine choke), 0:49, Round 2

Khalil Rountree Jr. def. Dustin Jacoby by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Preliminary Card

Roman Dolidze def. Phil Hawes by KO (punches), 4:09, Round 1

Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Andrei Arlovski by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:50, Round 1

Junyong Park def. Joseph Holmes by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:04, Round 2

Steve Garcia def. Chase Hooper by TKO (punches) - 1:32, Round 1

Cody Durden def. Carlos Mota by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Christian Rodriguez def. Joshua Weems by submission (anaconda choke) - 4:07, Round 1