Sooo ... About Last Night
· Yahoo Sports
Yesterday (Sat., May 30, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Galaxy Arena in Macau, China for UFC Macau. As one would expect, most of China’s top talent (with the notable exception of Zhang Weili) was booked to compete, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee wins. In fact, the entire “Prelims” didn’t feature a single victory from a Chinese athlete, putting an extra bit of pressure on the local stars like Song Yadong and Zhang Mingyang at the top of the card.
Let’s take a look back over the best performances and techniques of the evening:
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Song Saves The Day
By the time Song Yadong made his main event walk, every other Chinese fighter featured had already lost.
For a moment, there was reason to be concerned for Yadong as well. Deiveson Figueiredo is known lately for slowing the pace down, and the opening frame was indeed a bit of a staring contest. “Daico” did manage to land a couple hard body kicks before finishing the round in top position, however, so anxiety was high in Galaxy Arena heading into the second.
Thankfully, Yadong turned up the heat. He started jabbing more often, let his right hand go, and opened up with his kicking attack as well. As soon as Yadong increased the volume, Figueiredo looked uncomfortable and backed himself closer to the fence. Before too long, he tried to time yet another takedown and fell directly into a tight guillotine choke.
The tap came quickly.
This was an impressive win from Yadong, as Figueiredo is not an easy man to finish even late in his career. Given the fact that “The Kung Fu Kid” has already fought most of the other top contenders, it feels very possible that he’ll throw down versus Umar Nurmagomedov next.
Menifield Turns The Table
Zhang Mingyang is known for his fast starts. He’s literally never won a fight that left the first round, whereas he’s stopped almost all of his wins via KO in those opening five minutes. As such, I expected Alonzo Menifield to try to drag this fight out and capitalize on his experience with gritty, longer fights.
Not so.
Menifield fought hard right out of the gate, opening with heavy low kicks and counter right hands. Generally, Menifield was able to consistently outbox Mingyang. The Chinese fighter stood tall and never moved his head, whereas Menifield was able to weave at least a little bit and repeatedly clip Mingyang with hooks and overhands. Between explosions, Menifield would clinch up to recovery, a strategy that nearly got him knocked out by an elbow from close quarters — undoubtedly Mingyang’s weapon of choice. Otherwise, he really picked apart Mingyang, flooring him twice towards the end of the first to silence the crowd in style.
At 38 years of age, Menifield has now won three of his last four and arguably just picked up his signature win. “Atomic” ain’t going anywhere yet!
Pavlovich Unloads Early
Sergei Pavlovich’s rise to his first UFC title fight was an incredible tear. From 2019-2023, Pavlovich scored six first-round knockouts, demolishing his opposition in a minute on three separate occasions. The Russian landed his right hand, and his opponents simply crumbled.
Two UFC losses slowed his roll, and since then, Pavlovich has been a little more hesitant in a pair of decision wins. Last night, there was no such hesitancy against the rangy Tallison Teixeira. Pressing forward, Pavlovich landed the first real right hand that he threw — a terrible sign for the Brazilian. Teixeira took the shot well enough, but it gave Pavlovich confidence to swing away. A few seconds later, Pavlovich had landed two more right hands and stunned Teixeira. With his foe’s back to the fence, Pavlovich unleashed a huge overhand that clipped Teixeira behind the ear, crumbling him to the canvas.
What to do with Pavlovich and his three-fight win streak? His path forward is unclear, as the other top contender on a win streak is Alexander Volkov, who decisively beat Pavlovich in June 2024. He’s not likely to leapfrog “Drago” just yet, but perhaps Pavlovich ends up facing rising contender Josh Hokit after the UFC White House card.
Bantamweight Asakura Arrives
Kai Asakura properly introduced himself to UFC fans in his third Octagon appearance.
Asakura’s first pair of UFC bouts came at Flyweight against a pair of elite grapplers in Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott. Against both men, Asakura had moments of brilliance on the feet before getting overwhelmed on the canvas. Despite his popularity, Asakura’s back was to the wall here against Cameron Smotherman, a clear step back in competition in his return to 135-pounds.
The Japanese star delivered! He has a real gift for exploding into full-power shots from the first bell, and though his first couple attacks came up short, he quickly found his timing. Smotherman was trying to keep him away with a long jab, so Asakura used a big TJ Dillashaw-style loaded uppercut to close distance and set up his 3-2. The right hand floored Smotherman, and Asakura didn’t give him a chance to breathe. He moved into the pocket, put Smotherman’s back to the fence, and fired tight combinations until his opponent was out cold.
Asakura is an incredibly fun striker and should be matched as such. He doesn’t need to be fast tracked to the Bantamweight title mix. Instead, book him against a fellow knockout artist like Adrian Yanez and enjoy the fireworks!
Additional Thoughts
- Luis Felipe Dias defeats Yi Sak Lee via first-round knockout (highlights): Dias is a ball of muscle, and he throws with serious venom. He took the center of the cage early in his UFC debut, aiming to land on Lee’s chin with wide swings. In fact, it was a crisp right hand down the middle that caught Lee off-guard and dropped him. A couple quick ground strikes finished the contest a little early, but Lee’s initial reaction to the right hand didn’t look great, so I can’t fault the referee too heavily.
- Cody Haddon defeats Aoriqileng via second-round knockout (highlights): Australia’s Haddon entered the UFC with quite a bit of hype after his impressive Contender Series KO, but unfortunately, injuries have sidelined him since his debut victory back in October 2024. Still just 27, Haddon made up for lost time here against Aoriqileng, a hard-nosed UFC veteran. Haddon pressured and out-wrestled Aoriqileng from the first bell, maintaining a high pace and work rate wherever the fight moved, including some “GSP”-esque knees to the body on the ground. A couple minutes into round two, he landed a standing knee to the midsection that floored Aoriqileng, earning his first official UFC knockout win.
- Rei Tsuruya defeats Luis Gurule via first-round rear naked choke: 15 months ago, Tsuruya coughed up his undefeated record at UFC 313 to some random boxer named Joshua Van. Prior to that loss, however, Tsuruya was a top prospect. The decorated wrestler reminded fans why he was so highly touted in this rebound performance, effortlessly throwing Gurule around with slick transitions and takedown finishes. It took the 23-year-old athlete just three minutes to work through Gurule’s defenses and lock in the strangle, proving that Tsuruya remains a talented up-and-comer to keep an eye on.
- Rodrigo Vera defeats Zhu Kangjie via first-round knockout (highlights): Vera’s short-notice debut could not have gone any better for the Peruvian standout. Kangjie was looking to slug from the first bell, but Vera found his timing first and landed a takedown to settle Kangjie early on. When the two were back on their feet, Vera cracked his foe with a nice left hook for a knockdown. In the ensuing chaos afterward, Vera landed nearly every follow up he threw! It was a great display of accuracy, and Vera’s precision allowed Kangjie no opportunity to recover.
- Jaqueline Amorim defeats Loma Lookboonmee via first-round armbar: What happens when a jiu-jitsu ace faces an undersized Muay Thai expert? Nothing surprising, it turns out. Lookboonmee did well in the clinch early on, but Amorim used a leg entanglement to force the grappling and absolutely dominated once on the canvas. The finish itself was positively nasty, as Amorim twisted Lookboonmee’s elbow at an unpleasant angle to secure her third UFC stoppage via armbar.