Image: John Brannigan/Sherdog.com illustration
Anthony Hernandez played the role of the bully on Saturday night.
Despite being the smaller fighter, “Fluffy” overwhelmed Roman Dolidze with striking and wrestling en route to a fourth-round rear-naked choke victory in the UFC Vegas 109 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Hernandez has won eight straight fights in the Octagon, and perhaps none of those was more impressive than his latest effort, where he had Dolidze tapping in short order during the decisive sequence. The 31-year-old Californian likely needs at least one more victory for a middleweight title shot, but he definitely put the rest of the division on notice with this performance. As a result, Hernandez climbs one spot to No. 9 in the latest 185-pound poll.
Elsewhere, Iasmin Lucindo earned a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph over battle-tested veteran Angela Hill in a featured strawweight affair. The 23-year-old Brazilian rebounds from a loss to Amanda Lemos at UFC 313 and maintains her hold on the No. 7 ranking at 115 pounds. No. 8-ranked flyweight Steve Erceg was also in action on Saturday night, but due to the short-notice nature of his booking against Ode Osbourne, their bout was contested at 135 pounds. The former title challenger weathered some early adversity and rallied to bank the final two rounds to garner a unanimous decision triumph. The win doesn’t have any bearing on Erceg’s 125-pound ranking, but it sure beats the alternative, which would have been an ugly four-bout skid.
In housekeeping news, we bid farewell to the previously sixth-ranked Holly Holm from the women’s bantamweight poll. “The Preacher’s Daughter” hasn’t fought since taking a shellacking from Kayla Harrison at UFC 300 in April 2024, and when a proposed booking against Julia Budd in the ill-fated Global Fight League fell through, Holm turned her attention back to boxing. As a result, Oktagon MMA champ Lucia Szabova enters the 135-bubble at No. 15. “Silent Killer” improved her career mark to 8-0 with a first-round stoppage of Cecilie Maria Bolander over the weekend.
Note: Previous rankings listed in brackets.
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