MMA

UFC Vegas 120 predictions

Published

3 months ago

August 8, 2026

Did you miss the Meta Apex? Because it's back!

Would you believe it's been six weeks since fighters last stepped into the Apex's hallowed hallways? Following trips to Oklahoma City, Abu Dhabi, and a historic Belgrade stop, the show is back in Las Vegas with UFC Vegas 120 headlined by grizzled lightweight veteran Mateusz Gamrot and one of the division's brightest prospects Quillan Salkilld. The phrase â€œlitmus testâ€ is one of combat sports' most worn-out clichÃ©s, but it perfectly applies here.

We don't know exactly what we have with Salkilld, just 26 years old and heading into his 14th pro bout. He's 5-0 in the UFC so far and his past three opponents didn't make it out of the first round, including longtime contender Beneil Dariush. If Salkilld's finishing power and consistency are real, we could see another name muscle its way to the top of the always crowded 155-pound division.

Gamrot will have a lot to say about it. He's been in wars Salkilld hasn't come close to experiencing, and almost always forces his opponents to find another gear after the first five minutes. He's tailor-made to derail the Salkilld hype train.

Win or lose, we're going to learn a lot about Salkilld's championship potential Saturday.

Where: Meta Apex in Las Vegas

When: Saturday, Aug. 8. The seven-fight preliminary card begins at 5 p.m. ET, followed by a five-fight main card at 8 p.m. ET. The entire event streams live on Paramount+.

(Numbers in parentheses indicate standing in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings)

Mateusz Gamrot (11) vs. Quillan Salkilld (13)

I truly believe Quillan Salkilld will fight for a UFC title someday. But it won't be soon and it won't be off the back of Mateusz Gamrot.

Listen, I know I had a similar read with last week's Jan Blachowicz vs. Navajo Stirling encounter in which I picked Blachowicz to stifle the younger Stirling (spoiler: he did not stifle the younger Stirling), but my logic was sound: Gamrot is a significant step up in competition and Salkilld is still approaching his prime. We haven't seen the best version of Salkilld yet and it's that hypothetical version I'd pick to beat Gamrot. Now? There's a lot of work to do.

Chiefly, Salkilld's takedown defense. He's a good grappler and he knows how to work his way out of trouble. Can he avoid getting in trouble in the first place, though? Gamrot has excellent top control and even with Salkilld's athletic gifts, he can only scramble out of danger so many times before his energy starts to wane. And remember, this is a five-rounder. Gamrot has survived a few of those, Salkilld has only gone three rounds once in the UFC.

I'm expecting 25 minutes of grueling grappling from Gamrot, not enough to completely discourage Salkilld, but enough to make sure he does his homework before his next fight. Unless Salkilld can find a way to get it going on the feet, I have Gamrot by decision.

Diego Ferreira vs. Billy Quarantillo

Take two older dudes who love to chuck â€˜em and toss â€˜em in a cage and let God sort â€˜em out. This is the kind of old school matchmaking I can get behind.

Diego Ferreira and Billy Quarantillo both like to come forward throwing knockout punches and aren't afraid to mix in a little grappling, too. They're both on two-fight losing streaks and, frankly, likely see this as their last chance to prove they can still compete at the UFC level. That could lead to some caution, but given Ferreira and Quarantillo's histories, I doubt it.

More likely these two will stand and bang it out, with Ferreira being the first to take this to the ground if he sees an opening. I love that Quarantillo is doing his body a favor and moving up to lightweight, but he is giving up some strength here and Ferreira will exploit that. If he decides to turn this into a grappling match, he'll outwork Quarantillo and find a submission in the second round.

Darren Elkins vs. Yadier del Valle

Yadier del Valle has had a strange UFC career so far with the whole Isaac Dulgarian debacle and then a disappointing performance against Jordan Leavitt, so it's only fitting he'd randomly be chosen to be Darren Elkins' final fight.

The younger del Valle should rag-doll Elkins and put him away easily because as much as we praise Elkins for his toughness, he has been finished on multiple occasions and it feels like whatever is left of his famed durability has finally left him. Even he knows it's time to hang it up, which doesn't bode well for his chances. Don't get me wrong, Elkins will go for broke and squeeze every last ounce of MMA out of his battle-torn body, but it won't be enough.

It would be awesome to see Elkins author one of his classic third-round surges and it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility given del Valle's inexperience. But fairy tale endings are few and far between in this business, so it's far more likely del Valle does what he's supposed to do and pounds Elkins out within the opening five minutes.

Amanda Lemos (7) vs. Alexia Thainara (12)

I'm an unabashed Alexia Thainara stan, so I'm calling it now: Thainara dominates this matchup and places herself squarely in the contender conversation, with a title shot waiting for her in 2027.

How does Thainara get it done? Grappling, grappling, and more grappling. That's been Thainara's calling card so far and while it would be nice to see her mix it up some, especially if she has championship aspirations, right now if it ain't broke, don't break it. Amanda Lemos might be in a slump, but she's still one of the harder hitters in the 115-pound division. If Thainara gets cute in the standup, Lemos will put her on her backside.

Play it smart, â€œBurguesinha.â€ Shoot for takedowns early and often, wear Lemos down, and maybe even leave the Apex with another submission win on your record. A top 10 spot awaits.

Ty Miller vs. Billy Ray Goff

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you your Squash Match of the Week!

With respect to Billy Ray Goff, there's a reason he's being dusted off for the first time in over a year to take on Ty Miller. Goff cares not for defense. He's giving up size in this matchup. And he hasn't won a fight since August 2023. His punching power and aggression make him dangerous, but he's going to have Miller in his face the entire fight so he should at least try to keep his hands up.

The expected outcome is Miller walks Goff down, throws punches in bunches, and overwhelms him en route to a first-round knockout win. Who am I to argue?

Steven Asplund def. Guilherme Pat

Diyar Nurgozhay def. Bruno Lopes

Louie Sutherland def. Jose Montanha da Silva

Richie Miranda def. Manoel Sousa

Miles Johns def. Gianni Vazquez

Juliana Miller def. Ravena Oliveira

GiGi Canuto def. Carol Foro

MMA

Morning Report | Chael Sonnen: Alexander Volkanovski double retirement fight pitch is ‘one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard’

Published

10 hours ago

October 28, 2026

The Punch Junkie™ News

Morning Report | Chael Sonnen: Alexander Volkanovski double retirement fight pitch is ‘one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard’

Chael Sonnen isn't buying Alexander Volkanovski's sales pitch.

This past weekend, Volkanovski successfully defended his featherweight title with a second-round stoppage of Movsar Evloev in the main event of UFC 333. The win was yet another feather in the cap of one of the greatest fighters of all time, and afterward, Volkanovski quickly began to lobby for an even grander feather: a fight with lightweight champion Justin Gaethje.

Despite the line of contenders at lightweight, Volkanovski suggested that he and Gaethje could do a superfight, with both men retiring afterward so as to not hold up either the 145-pound of 155-pound divisions. But Chael Sonnen thinks that's ridiculous.

â€œHe does not know what we are doing here,â€ Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. â€œVolkanovski just laid out one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. â€¦ He's gonna go up, and he's gonna fight Justin Gaethje. He's got no problem with him; they get along. But they're gonna throw their arms around each other and put the gloves down in the middle when this thing is over. Who does that help? Why would anybody book that fight?

â€œIt was just a really weird thing to do. He suggested that he goes to 155 pounds to test himself. I appreciate that, except the fact that you're a â€˜55-pounder that cuts his ass off to not fight at â€˜55. You cut your ass off to not test yourself. You used to weigh 96 kgs [211 pounds]. â€¦

â€œI do challenge the notion that, â€˜I will go to 155 to test myself to fight Gaethje.' That's a cop out. That's a cop out by anybody. I don't mean that it's conscious, but that it's subconscious. If you want to go to 155 and test yourself, drop the strap and go into the division; exactly what Ilia Topuria did. Now, I understand that history is going to tell you that Ilia ended up with a title shot. He was not guaranteed a title shot when he dropped the strap and moved into the division.

â€œYou want to test yourself, do what Max Holloway did: be a â€˜45-pounder that enters â€˜55 with no guarantee. Which means if I lose, I don't get to say I lost to the best guy.'â€

It's unknown right now if the UFC has any interest in accommodating Volkanovski's pitch, though following UFC 333, UFC CEO Dana White did suggest it would be hard to deny â€œThe Greatâ€ many requests. That being said, Volkanovski has already had two shots to become a two-division UFC champion, losing twice to Islam Makhachev. In those instances, Volkanovski did not vacate his featherweight belt, and Sonnen seems to take umbrage with Volkanovski looking to get that same consideration for a third time.

â€œWhen Volk went up, he did not vacate; he did not burn his boats. If he was to burn his boats, he would have dropped the â€˜45-pound belt. â€¦

â€œThere's nothing stopping â€” there's no anchor tied to your ass to do that. You can do that now. Right now. â€¦ Make a public statement, that's all you've got to do to drop a belt. Tell the public you're dropping the belt. It's no different than we put a belt on a guy at a press conference. This really is how it works.

â€œYou want to test yourself? I like the idea. You want Gaethje? It's not the same thing. You want a shot at a world title that you've already had twice. It's not the same thing. You want to test yourself, do what Ilia did: drop the belt, go into the division.â€

Interim. Matt Brown defends Islam Makhachev, rips UFC for introducing another â€˜f*cking interim title.'

Chama. â€˜Go back to Chama': Israel Adesanya questions Alex Pereira for saying he'll return to 205 with UFC 335 loss.

GOAT. Aljamain Sterling explains why he's not ready to call Petr Yan the bantamweight GOAT just yet.

Christmas. Nakisa Bidarian teases Darren Till as possible next opponent for Jake Paul.

Wrestling. Arman Tsarukyan wrestles Anthony Pettis in RAF 15 main event.

The UFC Journey for Moicano vs. Tom Nolan.

DC talks to Sean O'Malley.

Patrick Habirora trains with Georges St-Pierre.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Movsar got a nice welcome home.

Very obviously no, since he just lost.

I don't think that was real.

Drew Dober is trying hard to break through as a content guy. Some of it is interesting.

TJ on them good vitamins now.

Vadim Nemkov (20-2, 1 NC) vs. Sergei Bilostenniy (15-4); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Patrick Habirora (9-0) vs. Omar El Dafrawy (16-6); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Pouya Rahmani (6-0) vs. Oleg Popov (23-2); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Sergio Pettis (25-8) vs. Joji Goto (21-9-1); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Abubakar Nurmagomedov (17-4-1) vs. David Martinez (17-6); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Khasan Magomedsharipov (11-0) vs. Adam Borics (20-4); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

AsaÃ«l Adjoudj (11-1) vs. Movlid Khaybulaev (23-0-1); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Ernesto Rodriguez (11-2) vs. Rhys McKee (15-7-1); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Shem Rock (12-3-1) vs. Connor Hughes (12-3); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Alexei Pergande (8-0) vs. Akhmed Magomedov (11-2); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Lewis McGrillen (13-2) vs. Nawras Abzakh (15-6); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Khmazat Abaev (6-1) vs. Leon Hill (10-2); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Aleksandra Savicheva (8-2) vs. Jacinta Austin (9-2); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Khabib Nabiev (12-0) vs. Styve Ngono (8-1); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Denis Goltsov (37-9) vs. Maxwell Djantou Nana (9-2); PFL Dubai; Nov. 14

Quillan Salkilld (13-1) vs. Benoit Saint Denis (17-4, 1 NC); UFC Sydney, Feb. 6

Mailbag! Get your questions in!

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Got questions? I have answers. Send in your Qs and I’ll give you some As, and if there are some really good Qs, I’ll A them in a mailbag column.

Thanks! Love y’all!

Rec 1ReplyRead 39 replies

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but letting Volkanovski get a third crack at a lightweight title would be absurdly silly when there are many more-deserving contenders waiting. But if you're going to push for it, at least just be honest and say why you really want it: because you love Volk and want him to get a chance at a meaningless second title.

Because that's what this is about. If he beats Gaethje and instantly retires, he won't be the best lightweight on Earth, the same way GSP wasn't the best middleweight. It's just collecting a trinket, at the expense of the careers of other deserving contenders.

Chael is right: if Volk wants another lightweight title shot, go up and beat a top contender. Then no one can possibly complain.

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