Gregory Rodrigues overcomes Anthony Hernandez in UFC battle

Gregory Rodrigues relied on devastating leg attacks and suffocating takedown defense to defeat hometown favorite Anthony Hernandez via unanimous decision in the middleweight non-title main event of UFC Fight Night Saturday night at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.

The Brazilian Rodrigues (20-6 MMA) took the victory on all three judges' scorecards with tallies of 48-47, 49-46 and 48-47. In a grueling 25-minute showcase, Rodrigues scored four calf-kick knockdowns, stuffed 25 of 28 takedown attempts, and maintained relentless striking volume to turn back Hernandez (15-4 MMA), a native of Dunnigan, Calif., in front of his home-state crowd.

Following the statement win which ran his win streak to four fights, Rodrigues set his sights on the upper echelon of the middleweight division, targeting a future showdown against former UFC champion Dricus du Plessis, who is currently the second-ranked contender in the division.

"Dricus du Plessis, where are you, man? I want you," Rodrigues said after the match. "Let's go (fight to be the No. 1 contender)."

Hernandez was gracious in defeat after a grueling, high-paced battle which snapped his eight-fight winning streak.

"He's a tough son of a b****," Hernandez said of Rodrigues.

In the co-main event, heavyweight contender Vitor Petrino (15-2 MMA) of Brazil utilized dominant wrestling to neutralize the knockout power of Moldova's Serghei Spivac (18-7 MMA), sweeping the scorecards with unanimous 30-27 marks across the board.

The victory keeps Petrino firmly in the heavyweight title picture, while Spivac dropped his fourth bout in his last six appearances.

Former ONE Championship two-division champion Reinier de Ridder (22-4 MMA) of the Netherlands made his UFC light heavyweight debut look effortless, stopping Roman Dolidze (15-6 MMA) of Georgia with dominant ground-and-pound at 4:01 of the first round.

The victory marked the 12th first-round finish of de Ridder's career while extending Dolidze's losing skid to three. He hasn't entered the win column since defeating Marvin Vettori in March 2025.

A devastating sequence of three elbows completely turned the tide for lightweight MarQuel Mederos (12-1-1 MMA), who halted the momentum of Welsh Cage Warriors veteran Mason Jones (18-3 MMA) before unloading a barrage of follow-up strikes to secure a second-round TKO at the 2:07 mark.

The victory snapped Jones' seven-fight winning streak and pushed Mederos' overall unbeaten run to 11 straight.

In the flyweight division, Carli Judice (7-2 MMA) kept her momentum rolling with a violent first-round TKO over previously undefeated prospect Jeisla Chaves (8-1 MMA) of Brazil.

A pinpoint liver kick followed by a flurry of unanswered strikes sealed the stoppage for Judice, marking her fourth straight victory and fifth career first-round finish.

Chaves entered the fight coming off a split-decision win in her promotional debut against Yuneisy Duben in June.

Just eleven days after earning a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series, heavyweight Anthony Wint (8-0 MMA) delivered a dominant promotional debut to open the main card, submitting Terrance Chatman (5-2 MMA) with an arm-triangle choke at 4:29 of the first round.

A former linebacker for the New York Jets who made his MMA debut in April 2023, Wint extended his streak of consecutive finishes to five, while Chatman dropped his second bout in his last three outings.

The UFC heads to Shanghai to close out its August stretch of events with a Fight Night card next Saturday.

--Field Level Media