On Saturday, March 7, the UFC hosted UFC 248: Adesanya vs. Romero from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In the night’s main event, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya put his belt on the line against Cuban wrestling silver medalist Yoel Romero. The Nigerian-born, New Zealand-based Adesanya has yet to taste defeat through 18 MMA bouts. The former kickboxing star captured gold by stopping Robert Whittaker in his last outing at UFC 243. The 42-year-old Romero came in having lost three of his last four, but all but one of those bouts were originally slated to be title match-ups.
Gold was also on the line in the co-main event as women’s strawweight queen Weili Zhang defended against former champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
The card kicked off with a preliminary card stream on ESPN+ at 7 p.m ET. The undercard continued on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, with the five-fight main card airing live on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET.
Weili Zhang def. Joanna Jędrzejczyk by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) – for strawweight title
Beneil Dariush def. Drakkar Klose by knockout (punch). Round 2, 1:00
Neil Magny def. Jingliang Li by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Alex Oliveira def. Max Griffin by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Sean O’Malley def. Jose Quinonez by TKO (strikes). Round 1, 2:02
Mark Madsen def. Austin Hubbard by unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Rodolfo Vieira def. Saparbek Safarov by submission (arm-triangle choke). Round 1, 2:58
Gerald Meerschaert def. Deron Winn by submission (rear-naked choke). Round 3, 2:13
Giga Chikadze def. Jamall Emmers by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Danaa Batgerel def. Guido Cannetti by knockout (punches). Round 1, 3:01