Last weekend, the UFC took a trip to Chicago, Illinois where UFC 319 took place. It might've been the most highly anticipated main event fight of 2025 and fighting fans from around the world tuned in. Before we jump right into the Kamzhat VS DDP fight, we will look at some of the other significant finishes that happened during this terrific event. 

For the sixth time in his career, a fighter from one of the world's newest, yet incredibly successful, fighting organizations took the octagon in Saturday night's third last bout. Carlos Prates, a Welterweight fighter, was the first 'Fighting Nerds' (the team he is a member of) to suffer defeat in the UFC. That hasn't prevented Prates from being quite confident going into this battle versus Geoff Neal. For some time now, he has been steadily progressing up the rankings, and he knew that winning this bout would put him in an ideal spot for further success. 

His opponent, Geoff Neal came into this fight as no slouch though. Compared to Prates, he had been in the UFC for a lot longer and had enjoyed numerous victories in the octagon. Neal appeared to be in good shape as the bout began. That said, as the round progressed, the Brazilian ultimately found his range. We were on the verge of a second round of action when Prates carried out the unthinkable and used one of his spinning attacks to send the United Center into shock. With one second remaining, a spinning back elbow hit flush, and the referee immediately stopped the fight. Neal had never been knocked out before in his UFC career. 

*(We had the Under 2.5 Rounds as our UFC Total Of The Year) 

If you thought the fight before this was fun to watch, the Co-Main event on the UFC 319 card might have even one upped it. Prior to the fight, there was lots of talk about Aaron Pico and him being the next big thing in the UFC. Like a lot of fighters these days, Pico was coming from the Bellator fighting association. Before the fight, he was actually the betting favorite and getting a lot of respect for being a complete fighter that was really good at both wrestling and stand up boxing. 

Lerone Murphy entered the bout with a perfect record -- 16-0 (1 no contest.) Talk about not getting much respect at all. While it was a pretty even fight for the most part through the first couple of minutes, with Pico slightly ahead with the couple of takedowns he was able to land, we could tell that this fight was going to be good. But, seconds later, Murphy landed a spinning back elbow of his own, landing even more direct that Prates' which happened not even 15 minutes prior. Herb Dean stopped it as fast as he could and this was the first time we've ever seen back-to-back spinning back elbows to win fights. 

All signs pointed towards a really good final fight of the night. This was expected to be the fight of 2025 according to a lot of fighting fans. Before this fight, the South African champ had silenced all of the critics. He might have been the most doubted champion in the UFC for a stretch as people just didn't believe that he'd keep winning. The fight at UFC 319 was his third title defense and he was ready for the biggest challenge of his career. 

But, the Russian wrestling wonderkid had other plans. Like in his other fights, Chimaev would look to take down Du-Plessis early. In fact, he did just that. Against Kamaru Usman, Chimaev faded a bit in the 3rd round, leading to Usman maybe stealing a round off of him. That gave fans of Dricus hope for the final rounds of this bout. But, Khamzat took control early and didn't let up. He took down Du-Plessis 12 times through the whole fight and within the first 40 seconds of each round. It was a domination and in the words of Bruce Buffer, 'And New' was announced loudly at the end of the night.