Song Yadong and Ricky Simon are the beneficiaries of the originally scheduled UFC Vegas 72 main event falling through.
With Renato Moicano forced out of a fight with Arman Tsarukyan due to injury, bantamweights Song and Simon now get main event placement, an extra two rounds to display their skills, and a chance to throw their name in the hat in terms of contendership in the deep 135lb division. 2023 has been the year of the bantamweight, with the division absolutely on fire, and there has been no sign of that changing any time soon.
In addition to Song vs. Simon, the UFC Vegas 72 main card had two debuting fighters, a heavyweight clash between Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Waldo Cortes-Acosta, and surging Brazilian middleweight Caio Borralho. Our picks are in — here’s how we see the night playing out!
| Writer | Quinlan vs. Waters | de Lima vs. Cortes-Acosta | Erosa vs. Padilla | Viera vs. Brundage | Borralho vs. Oleksiejczuk | Song vs. Simon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Behunin (42-23) |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Jamie Theodosi (40-25) | | | | | |  |
| Val Dewar (37-28) |  | | |  | | |
| Chris Prawdzik (36-29) | | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (32-33) | | | | | | |
| Eddie Law (29-36) | | | | | | |
| Dylan Rush (30-35) | |  |  | |  | |
Despite two debuting fighters being present on the UFC Vegas 72 card, there were no unanimous picks among our staff. That said, only one writer sided with featherweight Fernando Padilla to get the win in a very tough debut fight opposite Julian “Juicy J” Erosa. Welterweight Trey Waters, however, was given more of a chance against Josh Quinlan, with three writers responding siding with the newcomer.
Michal Oleksiejczuk had just a single writer selecting him to get the nod over Caio Borralho, who sits on a 12-fight win streak (discounting a 2018 No Contest). As for the main event, the vote was 5-2 in favor of Song Yadong.
