On Saturday night, the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado played host to the UFC’s first live fight card on “Big FOX” for 2017, and it was quite an eventful evening.
In the main event, dangerous striker and Holly Holm conquerer Valentina Shevchenko proved she is the definitive next person in line to challenge UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes, submitting the dangerous and determined ground fighter and former Ultimate Fighter champion Julianna Pena in the second round via armbar.
In the co-main event of the evening, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone faced a roadblock in his rise through the Welterweight division. The former longtime Lightweight contender suffered a second round TKO defeat to former street-fighter turned legitimate UFC ranked contender and longtime MMA veteran Jorge “Gamebread” Masvidal.
In what was his biggest test to date, rising and promising rookie UFC Heavyweight knockout artist Francis Ngannou proved he had the goods against his first former UFC Champion level foe, passing with flying colors by TKO’ing Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski in just 92 seconds in the second bout featured on “big FOX.”
In the main card opener, Jason Knight managed to pull off a submission victory, forcing former TUF veteran Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres with a rear-naked choke at the 4:21 mark of the second round.
Below are complete UFC On FOX 23 results from Saturday, January 28, 2017.
UFC On FOX 23 Results
UFC Fight Pass Preliminary Results
* Alexandre Pantoja def. Eric Shelton by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
* Jason Gonzalez def. JC Cottrell by submission (D’arce choke) at 3:54 of Round 1
FOX Sports 1 Preliminary Results
* Sam Alvey def. Nate Marquardt by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
* Raphael Assuncao def. Aljamain Sterling by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
* Li Jingliang def. Bobby Nash by knockout (punches) at 4:45 of Round 2
* Jordan Johnson def. Henrique da Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
* Eric Spicely def. Alessio Di Chirico by submission (triangle choke) at 2:14 of Round 1
* Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Jeremy Kimball by TKO (punches) at 2:21 of Round 1
Main Card Results
* Valentina Shevcheko def. Julianna Pena by submission (armbar) at 4:29 of Round 2
* Jorge Masvidal def. Donald Cerrone by TKO (punches) at 1:00 of Round 2
* Francis Ngannou def. Andrei Arlovski by TKO (punches) at 1:32 of Round 1
* Jason Knight def. Alex Caceres by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:21 of Round 2
