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Mario Bautista remained in the conversation of top bantamweights with an impressive submission win of Vinicius Oliveira at Saturday night's UFC Fight Night.
In the early stages of the fight, it was clear Oliveira wanted to get the fight to the floor, pushing for takedowns by pressing Bautista into the Octagon wall. Unfortunately for Oliveira, he was unable to find any success with his takedown attempts.
Even worse, it was Bautista who was able to win the grappling exchanges, scoring a takedown in the first round, before also ending up in top position in the second.
At the end of the opening frame, it seemed as though Oliveira had nearly emptied his gas tank, crawling to his corner and sitting on the canvas until his corner coaxed him onto a stool.
Bautista was able to counter an Oliveira takedown attempt to establish top control in Round 2. From there, Bautista was patient, eventually passing to side control before working for a kimura. While Oliveira was able to posture out of the submission, he left an opening for Bautista to quickly transition to back control.
Once Bautista had the back, he quickly locked in a rear-naked choke. As soon as the choke was in, Oliveira tapped out, awarding Bautista the submission victory.
The loss was the first for Oliveira in five trips to the Octagon.
For Bautista, he adds Oliveira to a resume that includes wins over the likes of former MMA champions Jose Aldo and Patchy Mix. The win also helped Bautista bounce back from a competitive decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 321 in October 2025. Bautista is now 10-3 in UFC competition.
UFC Fight Night fight card, results
- Mario Bautista def. Vinicius Oliveira via second-round submission (rear-naked choke)
- Kyoji Horiguchi def. Amir Albazi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Rizvan Kuniev def. Jailton Almeida via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Michał Oleksiejczuk def. Marc-Andre Barriault via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Farid Basharat def. Jean Matsumoto via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Dustin Jacoby def. Julius Walker via second-round TKO (punches)
- Daniil Donchenko def. Alex Morono via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
- Nikolay Veretennikov def. Niko Price via first-round TKO (punches)
- Ketlen Souza def. Bruna Brasil via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Javid Basharat def. Gianni Vasquez via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Wang Cong def. Eduarda Moura via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Jakub Wikłacz def. Muin Gafurov via third-round submission (guillotine choke)
- Klaudia Syguła def. Priscila Cachoeira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
