Key takeaways
Manel Kape beat Brandon Royval by knockout at 3:18 of round one in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. Brandon Royval had come in as the division's No. 4. In the co-main event, Kevin Vallejos beat Giga Chikadze by knockout at 1:29 of round two at featherweight.
Across the eleven bouts that produced a result, five ended by knockout, one by submission and five on the judges' scorecards — six stoppages in eleven fights. One of the five decisions divided the judges.
The quickest finish belonged to Melquizael Costa, who stopped Morgan Charriere at 1:14 of round one, and four of the six finishes came inside the opening round. The longest was Steven Asplund's knockout of Sean Sharaf, 8 minutes and 49 seconds in. End to end, the eleven fights filled one hour and 40 minutes of cage time.
The main card finished at the higher rate: three of five, against three of the six below it. Yaroslav Amosov (submission, round one), Steven Asplund (knockout, round two) and Jamey-Lyn Horth (knockout, round one) all closed before the judges were needed.
Eight ranked fighters appeared, and three of them were in the top two bouts.
Eight weight classes were used, featherweight most often with three bouts. ESPN+ carried all 14 bouts, split across a main card and one preliminary block.
