Natalia Silva wins flyweight gold as UFC 332 sets a knockout record

Silva banks the early rounds, then survives the late ones

Natalia Silva is the new UFC women's flyweight champion. She beat Wang Cong by unanimous decision at the Delta Center on Saturday, 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46, according to UFC.com. The belt was vacant because Valentina Shevchenko gave it up through injury in September, ESPN reported.

Silva built her lead in the first ten minutes: all three judges gave her rounds one and two. In round one she took the centre with leg kicks, caught a kick for a takedown and threw elbows, per Sherdog's play-by-play. Midway through the second, a head kick dropped Wang. Silva followed with a body-lock takedown and held top position.

Wang came on late. In the fourth she pressed forward to smother Silva's kicks, landing right hands and body knees, per Cageside Press and Yahoo. In the fifth a left hook stunned Silva, who tied her up to see out the round. Every judge also gave Silva at least one of rounds three and four, per MMADecisions.

The closing line had Silva at 64%. Our model, which works from fight stats only and never sees the odds, had her at 54%. The fight was closer than the 64% suggested, and closer to our 54%. Wang came in landing 6.84 significant strikes a minute, 97th percentile in our data. That volume won her the fifth round on all three cards.

Silva said the fight "proved why she was challenging me," per Yahoo's live blog. She is now 9-0 in the UFC, per UFC.com.

Cageside lists her as the fourth woman to hold this title, after Nicco Montano, Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso. It names Grasso and the winner of Erin Blanchfield vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius as possible next challengers, though nothing is booked.

Eleven knockouts, and the favourites delivered

Only two other fights went to the judges. Our data has 11 KO/TKOs, three decisions and no submissions from 14 fights, with nine finishes in round one. Yahoo Sports calls it the first UFC event with 11 knockout finishes, beating the nine at UFC Paris in September 2025. Yahoo also counted 16 knockdowns.

Favourites won nine of the 10 fights we had closing odds for.

Payton Talbott, the biggest favourite on the main card at 85%, stopped Deiveson Figueiredo at 2:09 of the first. A straight right dropped the former champion early, and Figueiredo grabbed for takedowns and ate punches on the breaks until Jason Herzog stepped in. It was Talbott's second straight win over a former UFC champion, after Henry Cejudo in December 2025. Afterwards he called out Sean O'Malley, per Yahoo Sports:

"I just mopped the floor with two champions back-to-back, and I want another one. Sean O'Malley. You can't run forever."

The one upset: Kopylov over Gautier

Roman Kopylov was the only closing underdog to win. The line had him at 32% and our model at 33%. Yahoo called it a huge upset, but one in three is a live underdog, not a long shot.

He stopped Ateba Gautier at 3:12 of the first. A straight left stunned Gautier, a one-two floored him, and hammerfists brought in referee Marc Goddard, per Sherdog. It was Gautier's first UFC loss after five wins.

Gautier's career striking accuracy is 38%, 5th percentile in our data. In January he beat Andrey Pulyaev on the cards while being out-landed 59 to 34, though he scored two knockdowns.

All five of his UFC wins came as a 79% to 90% closing favourite. Kopylov, at 32%, was the first opponent given a real chance. He had scored three knockdowns against Marco Tulio in May.

Where the money moved

Using only the opening lines our data marks as reliable, the biggest move toward a winner was on Ismail Naurdiev. He opened the underdog, with Marvin Vettori at -170 (61%), and closed at 54%. He won 29-28 on all three cards, handing Vettori a fifth straight loss.

Johnny Walker moved almost as far. He opened at +157 (38%) against Mick Parkin and closed a slight favourite at 51%, though only three books priced it. In his heavyweight debut, Walker swelled Parkin's lead leg with kicks, then knocked him out with a knee at 3:35 of the first.

Imanol Rodriguez went from a pick'em at -110 to 56%. He stopped Alden Coria with a body kick and punches at 3:11 of the first.

Two moves went the other way: Esteban Ribovics drifted from 79% (-450) to 64%, and Eric Nolan from 75% (-350) to 67%. Both still won. So the money pointed at the winner in three of five real moves. The two misses came in fights the favourite won anyway.

Our model: 7 of 11

Our model had a number on 11 fights and gave the winner 50% or more in seven. It agreed with the market on Kopylov, so both missed that one. Where model and market picked different winners, the market was right all three times: Walker (model 38%), Nolan (49%) and Rodriguez (48%).

Walker is the miss we take most seriously. The model sat right on his opening price, and the market moved away from it. We think the reason is something a stats-only model cannot see. None of the fights in Walker's file came at heavyweight, and this was his debut there.

Nolan is a different case. The model was close to a coin flip. It built Nolan from two UFC losses, including one where Farman Hasanov took him down 17 times. We think those numbers said little about a stand-up fight with Court McGee.

McGee retires, Pulyaev's jaw, and the bonuses

Fighting in his home state of Utah, McGee left his gloves in the cage after the loss, per Yahoo Sports. The TUF 11 winner retires after 25 UFC fights over 16 years. Nolan kept his own interview short so McGee had more time on the mic.

Rafael dos Anjos, 41, lost his fourth straight, stopped by Alexander Hernandez at 3:12 of round two. We have no closing line here, but Hernandez opened at -250 (69%) and our model had him at 64%. Dos Anjos took off his gloves but announced no retirement. His statement included: "Alex did a great job, and life moves on."

Damian Pinas knocked out Andrey Pulyaev with a right uppercut at 1:15 of the first. Dana White said the punch broke Pulyaev's jaw, per Cageside.

Performance of the Night bonuses of $100,000 went to Walker, Pinas, Rodriguez and Kopylov, according to Cageside. There was no Fight of the Night. The other seven finishers each received a $25,000 finish bonus.

Rest of the card

• Roberto Soldic def. Khaos Williams, unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27), in his UFC debut
• Esteban Ribovics def. King Green, KO/TKO, round 1 (4:08)
• Marcus McGhee def. Anthony Romero, KO/TKO, round 1 (4:58)
• Anthony Wint def. Lucas Armand, KO/TKO, round 1 (0:23)
• Jacobe Smith def. Bruce Whitehead, KO/TKO, round 1 (1:32)
• Eric Nolan def. Court McGee, KO/TKO, round 3 (3:26)