UFC Jacksonville 2023 Results: Topuria dominates Emmett for decision win as Barber stops Ribas

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Jacksonville, June 25: Ilaria Topurai got into featherweight title contention following dominant decision win over Josh Emmett in main event of UFC Jacksonville 2023: Emmett vs. Topuria at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday (June 24).

The audience witnessed four of thirteen fights end in stoppages, including the co-main event and the two others bouts on the main card, which also saw a fight end in no contest. Four fighters took home an extra USD50K as bonuses.

While the main event between Emmett and Topuria was awarded the fight of night, Maycee Barber and David Onama were awarded performance bonuses for the respective stoppage wins on the main card.

In the main event, No. 9 ranked Topuria established himself as a legitimate title threat in the featherweight division with a decision victory over No. 5 ranked Emmett to remain undefeated and keep rolling forward undeterred.

Although the scorecards displayed Topuria's dominance in the first main event of his career, Emmett's heart, toughness and power made sure it wasn't one-way traffic for the full 25 minutes.

After the dominant win, Topuria said, "I was expecting to knock him out in the first round, but the guy is really, really tough. I want to say thank you to Josh for bringing so much energy inside the cage.

"I showed once again that no one can match my level of skill inside the cage. I want what I deserve which is to take the UFC belt. I want to show Alex (Volkanovski) his world is going to end and mine is going to start."

In the co-main event, women's flyweight No. 11 ranked Barber continued working towards the top of the flyweight division, running her winning streak to five with a second-round stoppage win over No. 9 ranked Amanda Ribas.

Ribas came out strong, but Barber defended well and bloodied her up in the first round, then both engaged in an absolute banger until Barber got on top and finished by TKO in the closing stages of the second round.

Following the TKO, Barber said, "I think I just warned the whole 125-pound division, I'm back! I feel like Amanda and I made it fight of the night. I'm a shark, when I see that blood, I'm coming for it. My coach all week said 'I see a head kick' and I put that across her face so I feel really good. I'm going to keep warning these girls!"

Also on the main card, Onama stopped Gabriel Santons via knockout in the second round of a featherweight bout after Brendan Allen put Bruno Silva to sleep for a first-round submission win in a middleweight bout that opened the main card.

The main card also saw Austen Lane and Justin Tafa's heavyweight bout end in no contest after an accidental eye poke by the latter in the early stages of the first round.

On the preliminary card, Myanmar's Josh Van had a reason to be proud, not only as his country's first representative in UFC, but also for landing the highest number of significant strikes (149) for a flyweight debut and the second highest number in flyweight history.

Van used his intelligent boxing and takedown defense to get the split decision in a sharp three-round fight with Zhalagas Zhumagulov. The prelims also saw six other bouts go the distance and one fight end in stoppage as Mateusz Rebecki finished Loik Radzhabov via TKO in a lightweight bout.

UFC Jacksonville 2023 Results

Main Card

1. Featherweight Bout: Ilia Topuria defeats Josh Emmett by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-42, 49-45)

2. Women's Flyweight Bout: Maycee Barber defeats Amanda Ribas by TKO, Round 2, 3:42

3. Heavyweight Bout: Austen Lane vs Justin Tafa ruled a no contest (accidental eye poke) at 0:29 of Round 1

4. Featherweight Bout: David Onama defeats Gabriel Santos by KO, Round 2, 4:13

5. Middleweight Bout: Brendan Allen defeats Bruno Silva by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:39 of Round 1

Preliminary Card

1. Welterweight Bout: Neil Magny defeats Phil Rowe by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

2. Welterweight Bout: Randy Brown defeats Wellington Turman by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

3. Lightweight Bout: Mateusz Rębecki defeats Loik Radzhabov by TKO (strikes) at 2:36 of Round 2

4. Women's Strawweight Bout: Tabatha Ricci defeats Gillian Robertson by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

5. Flyweight Bout: Joshua Van defeats Zhalgas Zhumagulov by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

6. Lightweight Bout: Chepe Mariscal defeats Trevor Peek by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

7. Featherweight Bout: Jack Jenkins defeats Jamall Emmers by split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)

8. Middleweight Bout: Sedriques Dumas defeats Cody Brundage by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)