Anthony Hernandez breaks and stops Michel Pereira late in UFC Vegas 99 main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, October 19, 2024, for UFC Vegas 99, going down live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Headlining the event was a middleweight affair between no. 13 ranked former LFA middleweight champion Anthony Hernandez (13-2) 1 NC and no. 14 ranked former SBC welterweight champion Michel Pereira (31444444-12) 2 NC.
Hernandez came into the bout on a five-fight win streak, showcasing victories over the likes of multi-time BJJ world champion Rodolfo Vieira (guillotine coke), Josh Fremd (UD), Marc-Andre Barriault (arm-triangle choke), Edmen Shahbazyan (TKO), and Roman Kopylov (rear naked choke) since 2021.
Pereira on the other hand came into tonight’s main event on an eight-fight win streak, having defeated the likes of Zelim Imadaev (rear naked choke), Khaos Williams (UD), Niko Price (UD), Andre Fialho (UD), and Santiago Ponzinibbio (SD) down at 170 lbs before moving up to 185 lbs where he’d since gone 3-0 with stoppage wins over Andre Petroski (TKO), Michal Oleksiejczuk (rear naked choke), and Ihor Potieria (guillotine choke).
Those wins came at 1:06, 1:01, and 54 seconds of the opening round respectively.
Continue reading to see how our UFC Vegas 99 main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Anthony Hernandez def. Michel Pereira via TKO (elbows) at 2:22 of round five
Pereira hurt Hernandez with a beautiful snap kick to the body in the opening minute, continuing to land shots on Hernandez’ body before going upstairs and for a second it looked like we were about to see another early finish for the Brazilian.
Hernandez stayed in there however and started to wear on Pereira the entire second half of the first.
Hernandez seemingly broke Pereira throughout round two, securing several takedowns and landing heavy ground and pound from top position while also searching for submissions.
The beatdown continued in round three, Hernandez fighting his perfect fight and giving Pereira no space to work or breath; it’s surprising Pereira made it out of that round with how exhausted he looked.
After a similar round four Hernandez secured yet another takedown in the fifth, just completely mauling Pereira at will. He got himself in position to land a vicious elbow that opened a nasty cut on Pereira, unloading on more until Herb Dean stopped the fight midway through the fifth and final round.
Anthony Hernandez has now won six-straight fights inside the UFC’s middleweight division.
Of the 11 fights tonight between the preliminary and main cards nine went to the distance, the only finishes being Joselyne Edwards submitting Tamires Vidal with a rear naked choke at 4:33 of round three, and then Anthony Hernandez stopping Michel Pereira in round five, both stoppages coming in the last scheduled round.
We got a lot of cage time tonight at UFC Vegas 99 though there were some very entertaining clashes.
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