Daniil Donchenko continued his hot streak Saturday in the featured preliminary bout on a UFC Fight Night event at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
The touted 24-year-old striker who won the welterweight tournament on Season 33 of The Ultimate Fighter last year extended his overall winning streak to eight with a thorough dismantling of Alex Morono.
Ukraine’s Donchenko repeatedly hurt Morono’s left leg with hard low-kicks and mixed up his attacks en route to landing 100 significant strikes in 15 minutes before getting his hand raised thanks to a clean sweep of the scorecards.
Morono has now lost four straight as he fell to 13-10 with one no-contest in the UFC. The 35-year-old from Texas has absorbed 100 or more significant strikes in three of his past four losses and was finished with strikes in the other loss on his current streak.
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Meanwhile, Nikolay Veretennikov wasted little time against fellow welterweight Niko Price in another 170-pound contest.
Veretennikov unleashed a six-strike combination early in the first round that left Price leaning against the cage, being held up by the referee, who was waving off the fight. The 36-year-old from Kazakhstan returned to the win column after dropping a decision to Punahele Soriano back in October.
Price has now lost three in a row and five of his past six, and that could mean his UFC tenure is nearing its end. The 36-year-old American has been in the UFC since late 2016 and has always faced top competition, but his record in the organization has fallen to 8-10 with a pair of no-contests. Six of his losses in the UFC have been by KO/TKO.
Four fighters on the prelims missed weight on Friday, which resulted in three consecutive catchweight contests.
Opponents Wang Cong and Eduarda Moura both missed weight ahead of their scheduled women’s flyweight bout. Cong weighed 127.5 pounds and Moura an even 127, but neither athlete was fined because their opponent also missed weight. Cong ended up winning a unanimous decision. That’s now three consecutive decision wins for Cong as Moura fell to 3-2 in the UFC.
Muin Gafurov missed weight by a whopping five pounds ahead of his bantamweight matchup with Jakub Wiklacz, forfeited 25 per cent of his purse to his opponent, and ended up tapping out at the literal last second of a tightly contested contest.
The fight had been competitive for most of the three rounds, but Wiklacz managed to lock onto a guillotine choke in the waning seconds of the final round and it resulted in Gafurov clearly tapping out with both hands just as the horn sounded.
The referee did not initially wave off the fight as a submission win, however, following an official video replay review from the Nevada State Athletic Commission it was rightfully ruled a third-round submission victory for Wiklacz.
Ironically, one of Gafurov’s cornermen for the fight was former bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, who infamously lost his second UFC bout via technical submission that occurred as the final horn sounded.
Poland’s Wiklacz, 29, was coming off a successful UFC debut in October when he edged out touted former Bellator MMA champ Patchy Mix at UFC 320. He would’ve gotten his hand raised against Gafurov regardless of whether it was ruled a submission or went to the scorecards, since Round 3 was officially scored by the three cageside judges before the final submission ruling was determined and all three judges had Wiklacz winning two of the three rounds.
UFC newcomer Gianni Vazquez accepted a bantamweight matchup with Javid Basharat only on a few days’ notice, but ended up overweight by five pounds. Vazquez forfeited 25 per cent of his purse to Basharat, who ultimately won a unanimous decision to snap a three-fight winless streak.
Basharat’s original opponent, Said Nurmagomedov, was removed from the card in the middle of the week due to visa issues.
Also on the prelims, Ketlen Souza snapped a two-fight skid with a unanimous decision win over Bruna Brasil at flyweight. Klaudia Sygula kicked off the card with a unanimous decision win over Priscila Cachoeira in a women’s bantamweight matchup.
UFC Fight Night: Bautista vs. Oliveira was the first Fight Night card of 2026 and the first event at the Apex in nearly two months.
