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Check out all the scorecards from UFC 273

UFC 273 wrapped up last night with Alexander Volkanovski taking a decisive TKO victory over Chan Sung Jung, thus rendering the cageside judges irrelevant in the fight. However, the reigning UFC featherweight champion was one of just a handful of fighters who didn’t have to hear the scorecards read during this event.

Nine out of UFC 273’s 12 fights went to a decision last night. Most notably, the UFC bantamweight unification bout went the distance with Aljamain Sterling getting the nod over Petr Yan via split decision.

Many have criticized that decision, including UFC President Dana White.

Another razor thin decision on the night happened in the strawweight bout between Mackenzie Dern and Tecia Torres. It was Dern who was on the right side of that split decision in a fight that many felt was simply too close to call.

Khamzat Chimaev also heard the judges scores for the first time in his UFC career. Gilbert Burns got 15 minutes out of ‘Borz’, but suffered a unanimous decision defeat (though, he still got his win bonus).

If you’re curious on how the different judges viewed all these fights, you can check out the official scorecards below:

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Despite ending UFC 273 with a loss, Gilbert Burns will get his win bonus according to Dana White.

Apart from the two title bouts for UFC 273, one matchup that got a lot of hype was the welterweight pairing between former title contender Gilbert Burns and rising undefeated contender Khamzat Chimaev. “Durinho” was believed to be Chimaev’s toughest test, and it did show through the three-round battle between the two elite 170-pounders.

Ultimately, it was “Borz” who ended up with the decision win as he kept his undefeated record intact. But the fight itself was action-packed from bell-to-bell, so UFC president Dana White decided to give Burns his win money, nonetheless.

“I’m gonna give Burns his win money, too. He’s gonna get his show and win. That fight was ridiculous,” White told reporters during the UFC 273 post-fight presser.

“It’s one of the best fights I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the coolest fights I’ve ever been to. The place was so loud and people were going crazy. That fight was eclipsing the co-main and main event all week.

“That was one of the greatest fights I’ve ever seen,” he added. “And to be a part of, to be here in the arena. I don’t know how it came off on TV, but holy shit. It was awesome in here.”

White did give Chimaev his props, but he didn’t ignore Burns’ accomplishments.

“You heard Gilbert. Gilbert said, ‘I was prepared to die tonight. I wasn’t gonna come in here and roll over.’ He took some big shots tonight,” White said of Burns.

“He looked good, man. He’s fought four times in two years in the UFC. And most of them without a crowd.”

With the loss to Chimaev, Burns dropped to a record of 20-5.

Low fighter pay has been an issue in mixed martial arts, with many fighters such as Matt Brown recently campaigning for the UFC to remove this old show and win pay structure in favor for a flat fee.

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This is UFC 273 in a few short tweets!

UFC 273 is in the books, and it saw a dominant performance from Alexander Volkanovski in the main event, along with two very very competitive key match ups that went against the one-sided betting odds.

The featherweight champion successfully defended his title as he completely outclassed Chan Sung Jung. In the co-headliner, Aljamain Sterling also kept his title with an impressive — and very close — split decision win over Petr Yan, stemming from two slick back takes in succeeding rounds.

In perhaps the unofficial main event, Gilbert Burns and Khamzat Chimaev put on a show, in an incredible back and forth match up that truly tested the much hyped Chechen rising star. Chimaev survived getting dropped and hurt multiple times, but still won a back-and-forth decision over the former title challenger.

Below, we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:

And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.

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Join us today on Bloody Elbow for live results, discussion, round scoring, and play-by-play as UFC 273 goes down in Jacksonville, Florida.

Today’s show will feature two title fights and a highly-anticipated matchup in the welterweight division. The headliner will see UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski looking to cement his legacy when he defends against the Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung. The co-main is for the undisputed bantamweight title, with Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan finally settling their long-running grudge.

Oh, and that Chimaev guy too. He’s fighting by far the biggest test in his career, former 170-pound title challenger Gilbert Burns.

This post will cover the co-main between AlJo and Yan.

Today’s show is a standard PPV. There are three early preliminary card fights, which should kick off around 6:15pm ET/3:15pm PT. Those will air on ESPN+ and Fight Pass. Things will stay on ESPN+ and move to big ESPN for four more fights at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and then we’ll go over to ESPN+ PPV at 10pm ET/7pm PT as per the norm.

Let’s go!

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Zhang won the first matchup by five-round split decision back in 2020.

A rematch of one of the all-time great MMA fights is on deck for June.

ESPN’s Marc Raimondi reported on Friday night that former UFC strawweight champions Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk have agreed to square off once again, this time at UFC 275 in Singapore on June 11th. No word yet on whether or not it will be three rounds or five rounds.

Zhang (21-3) won UFC gold in front of her home fans in China with a sensational 42-second TKO of Jessica Andrade back in August 2019. Her first title defense came against Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 in March 2020, and she edged out Joanna by split decision in an epic, back-and-forth slugfest that has widely been hailed as the best women’s MMA fight ever. Zhang would lose her title in April 2021 by head kick KO to Rose Namajunas, who would then beat Zhang by split decision in their November rematch.

Jedrzejczyk (16-4) hasn’t fought since losing to Zhang. The Polish striker began her MMA career 14-0, including winning the strawweight title by TKO over Carla Esparza, as well as title defenses against Jessica Penne, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Claudia Gadelha, Valerie Letourneau, and Jessica Andrade. Her days as champion ended in an upset KO loss to Rose Namajunas in November 2017, followed by a decision loss in the April 2018 rematch. She bested Tecia Torres and Michelle Waterson by decision in her last two wins, with a flyweight title loss to Valentina Shevchenko sandwiched in between.

UFC 275 features a light heavyweight title fight main event between champion Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka, with women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko slated to defend her title in the co-main against Taila Santos.

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Here’s the finalized fight card for UFC 273 in Jacksonville.

It’s fight night!

UFC 273 takes place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, FL, and there are two titles on the line. The main event pits featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski against longtime contender Chan Sung Jung, aka ‘The Korean Zombie.’ This is TKZ’s second title shot, nearly nine years removed from his loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 163. In the co-main event, Aljamain Sterling makes his first title defense in a rematch vs. Petr Yan, who was memoably disqualified and thus lost his belt after an illegal knee to Sterling’s head in a fight Yan was easily ahead on the scorecards.

The featured non-title fight on the card is a welterweight battle between former title challenger Gilbert Burns and rising sensation Khamzat Chimaev; only three rounds and not five for this one seems wrong, doesn’t it? Rounding out the main card are women’s strawweight contenders Mackenzie Dern and Tecia Torres, preceded by lightweights Vinc Pichel and Mark Madsen.

In a late change to the card, heavyweight Marcin Tybura has withdrawn from his prelim bout vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik and thus there are just the 12 fights instead of 13 as was planned this week.

Here’s the finalized bout order for UFC 273:

Main Card (10 PM ET, ESPN+ PPV)

Alexander Volkanovski (-675 favorite) vs. Chan Sung Jung

Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan

Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev

Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres

Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel

Preliminary Card (8 PM ET, ESPN/ESPN+)

Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks

Anthony Hernandez vs. Josh Fremd

Raquel Pennington vs. Aspen Ladd

Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott

Preliminary Card (6:30 PM ET, ESPN+)

Aleksei Oleinik vs. Jared Vanderaa

Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos

Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez

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It looks like the UFC is already planning a step ahead, just in case rising star Khamzat Chimaev comes out of UFC 273 with another dominant victory.

It’s always good advice to fighters, that they should never look too far ahead of their next fight. Inevitably, it always feels like the fighter that starts talking about winning the belt before their Octagon debut—or picking up their second title before they’ve even fought for the first one—is headed toward a hard loss.

Promoters, however, get a little more leeway. It’s still not the best idea to count a anyone’s proverbial chickens before they hatch, but it’s also not a bad idea to at least have a few ideas in mind for the next big fight to book down the line. And if Khamzat Chimaev comes away with a victory over Gilbert Burns this Saturday, at UFC 273, it sounds like the the UFC will be ready and waiting.

“I think that if Khamzat Chimaev wins this weekend, we see him and Colby Covington next,” UFC president Dana White said in a recent appearance on the on The Pat McAfee Show (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I have a fight [card] coming up on ABC,” he added. “And in a perfect world, if everything plays out right, I would love to do Khamzat vs. Colby if Khamzat should win on Saturday night.”

No word as to just what exactly that date might be. The UFC currently has events scheduled all the way out through the first week of July, but none of those—for the moment—appear to be tabbed to broadcast on ABC.

Of course, before any of that can even be considered, Chimaev has to defeat the former title contender in front of him. Burns is fresh off a victory over Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 264. That win marked his first return to the Octagon since a TKO loss to champion Kamaru Usman last February.

For Chimaev, this bout at UFC 273 represents just his 5th trip to the Octagon since debuting in 2020. The unbeaten Allstars talent has been on the receiving end of just one significant strike through his 12min 54sec of UFC cage time. The type of dominance that has a whole lot of people looking ahead to what he might do in the not too distant future.

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Welterweight Gilbert Burns will take on rising hot prospect Khamazat Chimaev at UFC 273.

Welterweight contender Gilbert Burns will have his hands full at UFC 273.

A considerable underdog against the rising Khamzat Chimaev, ‘Durinho’ is looking to stop his opponent’s hype and put together a new title run himself. For those reasons, the Brazilian does not mind that ‘Borz’ is the favorite ahead of their encounter.

In an interview with Ag Fight, Burns explained that being the underdog can help him focus on delivering a better performance. Now that the pressure is all on Chimaev’s side, Gilbert believes Khamzat is the who one will have to make the first move and make an impact in the fight.

“It doesn’t get me down,” Burns said. “I think it’s cool that I’m the underdog. It takes off some of the pressure. I’m number two in the rankings, I don’t have to go after him like a mad man to finish the fight. The way he’s been talking about how much of a favorite he is, I think he will have to go after me. You have to go out there and steal the belt. Because of the way he’s been talking, he’ll have to really go for it.”

“I’m pretty cool, actually,” Burns added. “I was the underdog in my last four or five fights. I’m used to it and I like it. A little less pressure, A little more relaxed. Everyone doubting me, then I go out there and show them. Or, if the worst case scenario happens, people were already expecting it. So it does make a little more calm.”

In his last outing, Burns (20-4) defeated Stephen Thompson by unanimous decision, back in July 2021. Before that, the 35-year-old suffered a TKO defeat to champion Kamaru Usman, in February of the same year.

Now, Burns is expected to take on Chimaev at UFC 273, in Jacksonville, Florida, on April 9. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a featherweight title fight between the champion, Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Chan Sung Jung.

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Tybura has been forced out of the event due to an undisclosed illness. 

Hours after Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Marcin Tybura successfully weighed in on Friday morning, their heavyweight fight at UFC 273 has now been canceled.

The UFC announced Tybura was removed from the lineup after falling ill with an undisclosed illness. Rozenstruik vs. Tybura was scheduled for the preliminary portion of the pay-per-view event, which is now down to 12 fights as a result of the cancelation.

Rozenstruik and Tybura were originally expected to fight at UFC Vegas 49 this past February, but that was also canceled for undisclosed reasons. There is no word yet on whether the pairing will remain intact for another event.

‘Bigi Boy’ has since responded to the cancellation and sent well wishes to his would-be opponent in a video shared on Instagram.

“Marcin is sick, there is nothing we can do,” said Rozenstruik. “Just wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully we see him next time around. For now, I talked to the UFC discussing what the available options are and you guys will hear soon.”

Rozenstruik has not fought since UFC 266, where he lost to Curtis Blaydes via unanimous decision. The No. 8 ranked heavyweight contender has alternated between wins and losses in recent years, with knockouts of Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and Augusto Sakai among his highlights.

Tybura hoped to return to the win column following a unanimous decision loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC 267 last October. The Polish fighter was previously on a five-fight win streak, which included ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded finishes of Greg Hardy and Walt Harris in his most recent Octagon appearances.

UFC 273 takes place on Saturday, April 9, at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. Alexander Volkanovski defends his featherweight championship against Chan Sung Jung, better known as ‘The Korean Zombie’ in the headliner. A highly anticipated bantamweight championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan serves as the co-headliner.

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Dig into the main card fights of UFC 273, highlighted by human freight train Khamzat Chimaev looking to run through recent title challenger, Gilbert Burns.

It says something when UFC 273 features two fighters whom many could make a very strong argument deserve to be the pound-for-pound best in the sport populate the card… and they don’t appear to be the star attraction. That’s the type of buzz Khamzat Chimaev has been able to produce in the span of four UFC fights. Hell, Chimaev’s star is burning so bright that it’s easy to forget one of the most recent “anointed ones” in Mackenzie Dern will show up just one fight before him. The Chechnyan has the look of a generational talent that should be appreciated to the fullest extent as he has yet to be seriously tested. The hope is that recent title challenger Gilbert Burns will be able to change that.

For the early prelims preview, click here. For the televised prelims, click here. For an audio preview, click here.

Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev, Welterweight

There’s no doubt the UFC set up this contest with the hopes of having Chimaev walk through Burns the way he’s walked through everyone else thus far. A win over a recent title challenger is exactly what Chimaev needs to solidify himself as credible threat to Kamaru Usman, creating a potential box office smash. With that in mind, Burns has already proven he’s capable of beating Usman, hurting the champion early in their fight before adrenaline got the best of the Brazilian. While it would seem like a longshot for Burns to get another crack at Usman, it’s not like there is an obvious candidate. You think a win over Chimaev wouldn’t do wonders for Burns in terms of him getting a rematch? This fight is an incredible opportunity for Burns.

Burns’ career really took off when he moved up to welterweight. No longer burdened by the weight cut to 155, Burns began fighting at a faster pace since he no longer had to conserve energy. It helped that after several years under the tutelage of Henri Hooft, he was finally comfortable with the striking techniques of the demanding coach. Outside of just having confidence to let his hands and feet fly, Burns became a real threat on the feet as his speed became accentuated now that he was fighting larger men.

In order for Burns to have a chance against Chimaev, he needs to make use of that speed. While it’s no secret the bread and butter of Burns is – and always will be – his vaunted BJJ, does anyone actually believe he’s going to be able to get Chimaev on the mat? Burns isn’t a bad wrestler by any means, but Chimaev has proven himself to be a physical beast unlike anything we’ve seen at welterweight. Against Jingliang Li, he picked up the Chinese representative and carried him around the cage like he was nothing. Li isn’t an Olympic caliber wrestler by any means, but he isn’t a slouch either. That was Chimaev showing off to make a point as he’s usually pretty damned technical with his wrestling. Burns isn’t going to force the fight to the mat unless he can utilize something unique like an Imanari roll… and I can’t recall him ever trying something like that.

It isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Burns to score a club and sub either. If Burns can hurt Usman, I’m sure he can hurt Chimaev. Just because he can doesn’t mean he will. Plus, though Chimaev has made his bones with his ability to manhandle his opponents with his wrestling, he’s flashed enough on the feet to let everyone know he’s dangerous to strike with as well.

Chimaev looks like a man of destiny at this point. I doubted him against Li after he had such a difficult time overcoming his bout with Covid, but I have no intention of making the same mistake again. Burns has the talent and know-how to derail him, but having the ability and doing it are two separate things. Regardless of how it turns out, kudos to the UFC on this nifty bit of matchmaking. Chimaev via TKO of RD2

Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres, Women’s Strawweight

There doesn’t appear to be much middle ground in the MMA world with regards to Dern. That’s in large part due to the extremes in her skill set. Perhaps the best pure grappler in all of women’s MMA, Dern has managed to find submissions in more than half of her fights, most of those in the first round. However, Dern is still a work in progress on the feet… and most would argue that’s putting it nicely. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such an issue if Dern owned a half decent wrestling game. Instead, Dern has relied on her opponents possessing a low fight IQ and voluntarily opting to go to the mat with the BJJ prodigy.

I admit I’m being hard on Dern. She has shown progress in both her wrestling and striking from when she first entered the UFC. Of course, Dern was undisciplined when she signed with the organization, regularly missing weight on the regionals and even into her UFC stint. For whatever reason, Dern has been able to find focus in her career after becoming a mother. But it’s been less than three years since she returned from her maternity leave and that’s not a lot of time to become a striking or takedown threat. What Dern does have going for her – aside from her world class BJJ — is a monstrous frame for the division with an excess of power that can put down just about anyone on the strawweight roster.

That’s easier said than done with Torres. While Torres may be the smallest fighter on the roster, she’s also proven to be one of the toughest. Despite having fought just about all the top fighters in the division, Torres has never been finished throughout her career. She rarely finishes anyone herself, but that’s probably her biggest hurdle to being an elite fighter. Despite her small frame, Torres throws her wide range of strikes with precision, utilizing expert footwork and angles to close the distance.

The question will be how Dern’s physicality will come into play when she can close the distance. Though Dern isn’t a great wrestler, she has used her raw physicality well to get the fight to the mat at times. While Torres does have a strong base, size does matter. Can Torres survive with Dern on the mat? While I can’t answer that definitively, the odds seem good. Dern couldn’t submit Marina Rodriguez and Torres appears to be more difficult to submit. Even when opponents have been able to ground Torres, they usually can’t keep her grounded for long. In fact, most of Torres’ opponents have found success controlling her in the clinch… an area Dern hasn’t proven herself. Dern’s lack of discipline on the feet will come back to haunt her once again. Torres via decision

• It’s hard to find a more underappreciated member of the UFC roster than Vinc Pichel. Despite sporting a 7-2 record within the organization, Pichel is seen as a stepping stone as opposed to someone who is knocking on the door of the official rankings. Of course, at 39, Pichel is an elder statesman whose UFC run has been marked by long absences from the cage, including five such stretches where he has gone more than a year in between fights. Pichel was never a great athlete, but he has been able to find success due to his intense grittiness and determination. While he isn’t a standout in either his striking or with his wrestling, he gets the job done. Where he has struggled is with physical wrestlers. That describes Mark Madsen to a tee. The former Olympic silver medalist is as stout as they come at 155, exercising great control in the clinch and a willingness to take an opponent down time and again. Though Madsen is still a novice in the striking department, he has shown impressive progress in his boxing. Regardless, he doesn’t want to keep the fight standing. Pichel is a savvy vet who is the perfect test for Madsen. Madsen has slowed down the stretch, so the expectation is Pichel will have the tide in his favor come the last round. It’s likely to hinge on how the judges see the second. I have very little confidence in my pick, but I’ll go with Madsen given he appears to be a stylistic problem for Pichel. Madsen via decision

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