Main card
MW
Michelle Waterson-Gomez vs Tecia Pennington
Unanimous decision R3 5:00
TP
✓
Key takeaways
Max Holloway beat Jose Aldo by knockout at 4:51 of round three in the main event of UFC 218 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. In the co-main event, Francis Ngannou beat Alistair Overeem by knockout at 1:42 of round one.
Across the twelve bouts that produced a result, seven ended by knockout, one by submission and four on the judges' scorecards — eight stoppages in twelve fights. One of the four decisions divided the judges.
The quickest finish belonged to Francis Ngannou, who stopped Alistair Overeem at 1:42 of round one, and three of the eight finishes came inside the opening round. The longest was Max Holloway's knockout of Jose Aldo, 14 minutes and 51 seconds in. End to end, the twelve fights filled two hours and 7 minutes of cage time.
The preliminary card out-finished the main card: five of its seven results came early, against three of the five above it. Paul Felder (knockout, round two), Yancy Medeiros (knockout, round three) and Amanda Cooper (knockout, round two) all closed before the judges were needed.
Four ranked fighters appeared, among them champion Justin Gaethje.
