Luana Santos made her promotional debut at UFC Vegas 78 on Saturday night, paired up with recent Ultimate Fighter winner Juliana Miller.
The women’s flyweight match-up kicked off the Fight Night card, and found Miller looking to get back in the win column after a loss to Veronica Hardy earlier this year. At just 5-1, meanwhile, Santos rather surprisingly held a slight experience edge over “Killer” Miller, discounting her exhibition bouts on TUF.
Santos closed the distance right away getting after things kicked off in Saturday’s curtain jerker. She threw a ton of volume to eventually clinch up. They quickly separated and Miller still was coming after Santos. Miller however did walk into an overhand right that clearly had her hurt.
Miller was on weak legs, barely standing and at times leaning on the fence as Santos was spamming overhands landing damaging blows. Miller tried a guillotine but Santos defended that with ease. The brief time they went down didn’t last long. On the feet, Santos hurt Miller again with a right hand and Miller was shaken badly. Miller was just taking damage against the cage and could do nothing but cover up, taking it until the ref stepped in.
Now that’s how you open a show! 🤩@LuanaSantosMMA1 | #UFCVegas78 pic.twitter.com/5iBG5xWGJs
— UFC (@ufc) August 12, 2023
Official Result: Luana Santos def. Juliana Miller by TKO (punches), Round 1, 3:41
