If you're a fan of women in the lighter weight classes, this was the Fight Night for you.

The UFC packed its production trucks and headed to the Jersey Shore for a Saturday night show from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City that was headlined by a showdown between the second- and third-ranked contenders at women's flyweight.

Twenty-four-year-old Erin Blanchfield was at No. 2 and Manon Fiorot, a decade older at 34, was a slot behind, and each was angling for a shot at champion Alexa Grasso in the event she doesn't pursue another bout with the foe from whom she took the belt, Valentina Shevchenko.

Grasso won the title from Shevchenko last March and retained it with a draw against her in September. The ex-champ is ranked No. 1 at 125 pounds, while Blanchfield and Fiorot had climbed to their respective positions with a combined 12-0 record and five finishes in the UFC.

Also matched on the 13-bout show were ranked strawweights Virna Jandiroba (No. 5) and Loopy Godínez (No. 10), who met in a three-rounder in the penultimate bout on a seven-fight preliminary card. Another early fight between Viktoriia Dudakova and Melissa Gatto was removed thanks to a backstage medical issue with Dudakova.

The B/R combat team was in position to deliver a real-time assessment of the show's definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

Winner: Making It Clear

It was a clinic. Albeit a tedious and nondramatic one.

But if you think that bothers winner Manon Fiorot, think again.

The French flyweight arrived for her main event with Erin Blanchfield ranked a spot behind her foe at No. 3 in the division, but her performance over 25 minutes was so one-sided—if not exactly compelling—that it seems almost procedural that she leapfrogs into a title fight.

Fiorot pitched a perfect scorecard shutout over five rounds, winning each of them on all three scorecards for a unanimous decision. She landed 134 significant head strikes to Blanchfield's 97, scored the fight's lone takedown and earned her way into title talk.

Flyweight champ Alexa Grasso and ex-beltholder Valentina Shevchenko are coaching opposite teams on The Ultimate Fighter season that begins airing in June, leaving Fiorot to either take another fight in the meantime or wait on the sidelines until the belt is in active hands.

She doesn't seem concerned either way, and she needn't be given a pristine performance in which she superbly controlled distance against Blanchfield, moving forward occasionally, standing her ground occasionally, and stepping back to run her onrushing opponent directly into flashy punches.

By the time it was over, Blanchfield was red-faced and frustrated while Fiorot beamed.

"I've fought everyone in the category. That's it," she said. "I'll take one or the other. Everyone. I want my title shot."

Winner: Being Unpredictable

Joaquin Buckley is not an easy man to fight.

He punches with power. He kicks with speed. He moves frenetically in all directions before springing forward to launch attacks from nontraditional angles.

So, when Vicente Luque had a takedown stuffed and decided to go to his jiu-jitsu roots by pulling guard and inviting Buckley to engage on the mat, he thought he was doing the safe thing.

Turned out it was anything but.

Rather than being pulled into Luque's limb-twisting matrix, Buckley stayed outside his Brazilian foe's grasp and instead rained down with punches and elbows, forcing Luque into an inactive defensive shell that ultimately prompted referee Keith Peterson to wave the fight off at 3:17 of the second.

"Why engage in tight grappling with a guy like Vicente Luque," analyst Paul Felder said. "Stay outside and do what you're good at."

Neither man established clear control in the initial round and the second was similarly non-conclusive before Luque's fateful takedown try.

"People think I'm just a striker but I'm a mixed martial artist," Buckley said. "He stopped working so I kept punching."

Luque, ranked 11th at welterweight, was Buckley's most high-profile pro victim and the win was his first since he transitioned back to 170 pounds from middleweight.

"They done messed up and gave your boy a ranking," he said. "This is what I've been talking about for a long time."

Loser: Passing the Eye Test

The crowd loved it. The broadcast team loved it. Chris Weidman loved it.

Everyone, in fact, seemed content except Bruno Silva.

The Brazilian was on the losing end of what appeared to be a TKO flurry from Weidman at 2:18 of Round 3 of their main card match, until replays showed the two punches that landed were another combination of eye pokes that had dropped him to his knees.

But rather than having the loss waved into a no-contest or even seeing Weidman disqualified after three visible infractions, the only thing that changed was the method of victory as the fight was scored over two full and one partial round and announced as a unanimous decision win instead of a finish.

All three judges scored it 30-27 in Weidman's favor with no penalty points taken away.

Silva, who'd sat in his corner and pleaded with officials to consult replays, left the cage without comment while Weidman, a popular ex-champion at middleweight and native of nearby New York City, chastised him for going down from the pokes instead of standing and complaining.

"You can't drop to the ground like that if your eye gets poked," he said. "He went straight to the ground and the referee sees that, and it cost him."

It was a verbal poke after the series of actual pokes, but it'll nevertheless go down as a win for Weidman, who'd not had one since 2020 and now has just three in 10 fights since his last successful title defense against Vitor Belfort at UFC 187 in May 2015.

"I just got done beating a guy who's beaten a lot of fighters," Weidman said. "I'm still progressing and evolving right now and I'm 39 years old."

Winner: Recognizing a Problem

It's not an easy name. It wasn't an easy finish.

But regardless of your opinion of Nursulton Ruziboev's abrupt first-round finish of Sedriques Dumas thanks to a devastating flurry that followed an inadvertent eye poke, the guy can fight.

He's imposing at 6'5", powerful at 185 pounds, and menacing thanks to a streak that's now reached 10 straight wins by first-round finish after Dumas' night was waved off at 3:18 of the first.

Or, in UFC speak, he's a problem.

"Keep your eyes on this kid," analyst Paul Felder said. "This is the real deal."

Ruziboev had begun asserting himself well before the finish thanks to aggressiveness that blended well with his frame, and the end began drawing near when his left pinky grazed Dumas' right eye as he flicked out a measuring jab.

Dumas reacted in a delayed manner and turned as he wiped his eye with no delay called by referee Vitor Ribeiro, leaving an opening for Ruziboev to deliver a punishing right uppercut that sent his opponent to the floor.

Another half-dozen ground strikes to a near-defenseless foe were enough to draw Ribeiro's wave off.

The fighters chatted briefly after the result was made official, with Dumas insisting "I respect you but we're gonna run it back soon."

Loser: Baiting the 'Monster'

Kyle Nelson's win wasn't popular. And he knew it.

But rather than pandering to the fans with a contrived attempt to curry their favor, the rugged Canadian "Monster" steered directly into the heel skid.

Several minutes after a stoppage by referee Gary Copeland that was still drawing audible derision as he grabbed the microphone, Nelson invited the partisan crowd to get an up-close look at the power that left popular opponent Bill Algeo swaying like a windsock at a car dealership.

"I think the ref did his job," he said. "But for anybody that's got some criticisms I can be back into this octagon next week if they want to come on down. Come on, Atlantic City."

It was a third straight win and fourth overall in the UFC for Nelson, who began the decisive sequence with an overhand right that landed on Algeo's left ear, wrecking his equilibrium.

The Philly-area featherweight stayed upright and tried to reply with flailing counters as Nelson pressed, but a follow-up sequence punctuated by a left hook and right hand put him back on skates and prompted Copeland to jump in with a full minute remaining in the round.

ESPN's broadcast team was unanimous in suggesting the fight could have continued a few moments longer, but none suggested it would have changed the result.

"I was throwing punches," Nelson said. "He was eating them but I was gonna go all day long."

Winner: Working the Room

Nate Landwehr knows how to work a UFC room.

The brash Tennesseean is a fan-friendly commodity both in the octagon and with the microphone and he flexed both muscles in Saturday's prelim feature bout with featherweight Jamall Emmers.

He'd arrived with four wins in seven UFC bouts and three consecutive performance bonuses, and he entered this time around with a chip on his shoulder thanks to a frustrated Emmers' pre-fight claim that he'd be the one to deliver a memorable effort in derailing what he considered a hype train.

It seemed he'd be prescient early on thanks to a strong start that left Landwehr with a face mask of blood, but the 35-year-old rallied with an abrupt combination that started with a lead right uppercut. Two more short inside punches sent Emmers to the floor and a quick burst of hammer fists prompted a rescue from referee Keith Peterson at 4:43 of the round.

It was his first KO since 2018 and first in the UFC.

"Whoop my a-s and see what happens," Landwehr said. "I'm in here feeling like a young Jean-Claude Van Damme."

Winner: Winning Ugly

It wasn't pretty, but Virna Jandiroba will take it.

The Brazilian strawweight arrived for her contender showdown with Loopy Godinez having won two straight fights and five of eight in the UFC, thanks to a grinding, sometimes tedious style in which she plods forward with her tall, lanky frame and seeks to get fights to the ground.

It isn't always the fan-friendliest experience and Saturday night was no exception, but the 35-year-old was still quite happy with the result, a unanimous three-round decision over Loopy Godinez in a matchup of the fifth- and 10th-ranked fighters at 115 pounds.

Two judges had it 29-28, matching the BR card, while another had it a shutout at 30-27.

Godinez was successful in the first five minutes with a measured, compact approach that allowed her to land sharper and more precise strikes as she snuffed her foe's attempts to get the fight horizontal.

Jandiroba made it messy in the second round, though, and even more so in the third, getting things to the mat early, taking Godinez's back after a subsequent scramble and spending the last minute or so chasing submissions after wrapping her right arm around Godinez's neck.

She wound up landing 86 strikes to Godinez's 50, scored the fight's only two takedowns, and ran up more than six-and-a-half minutes in control time.

Winner: Playing It Cool

For one full round and part of another, Julio Arce took the subtle approach.

He worked the body. He kicked the legs. But he didn't do anything particularly flashy or memorable while dodging takedown attempts and enduring two low knees from opponent Herbert Burns.

But when opportunity presented itself, he pounced.

The 34-year-old New York-based veteran, who hadn't fought in 16 months while recovering from ACL surgery, began a flurry with a left hand that sent Burns teetering backward to the fence and followed it with another half dozen shots—including another left hand that sent the Brazilian to the floor and prompted an instant stoppage without another punch thrown from referee Gary Copeland.

It was Arce's sixth win in 10 UFC fights and his first celebration in nearly two full years since a decision over Daniel Santos at UFC 273 in April 2022.

"To get back into the cage and make this walk," he said, "if you can get your mind to it, you can accomplish things."

He'd not been particularly violent early but depleted Burns' gas tank to some extent by stuffing five takedowns in the opening five minutes. He probably didn't deserve the round on the scorecards, but at exactly 2:00 of the second, it didn't matter.

"The whole camp it was work his body, be patient, neutralize his jiu-jitsu," Arce said. "I was patient, and I found my knockout. We keep it simple. We keep it clean. And guess what? We're here baby, we're here."

Winner: Settling a Score

There's no revenge quite like a punch in the head.

Turkish light heavyweight Ibo Aslan arrived for his UFC debut with a perfect record as an MMA professional aside from one fight—a second-round submission four years ago—that just happened to have come against the man he was meeting again, Anton Turkalj.

Aslan had scored KOs in each of his wins coming in, all but one coming in one round, but he seemed happy to go all the way to the third before evening the score with a single right hand to the temple that sent Turkalj tumbling to the floor and prompted a quick wave off from referee Gary Copeland.

The official time was 1:32 of the third.

"This guy ran four years from me. Now he can't run anymore," said Aslan, who won 11 fights across multiple promotions before earning a contract with a first-round finish of Paulo Renato Jr. on Dana White's Contender Series last summer. "I caught him in the UFC."

The loss was Turkalj's fourth in a row since a UFC arrival that came after seven straight wins and a Contender Series triumph of his own in 2022.

And Aslan wasn't shy about his future plans, too.

"I'm here to knock people out," he said.

Winner: Embracing the Hate

The first big crowd pop of the night went to Andre Petrovski.

The Philadelphia-based middleweight was a clear favorite of the Atlantic City crowd, which booed loudly at first sight of Australian foe Jacob Malkoun before their three-rounder began.

Malkoun obviously remembered.

The veteran of six previous UFC fights controlled the opening round with precise hard strikes but wound up winning under unusual circumstances early in the second, when Petrovski appeared to knock himself silly on Malkoun's left hip while diving in for a takedown and was defenseless for a follow-up kick, prompting referee Gary Copeland to intervene just 39 seconds in.

"I've got some bony hips," Malkoun said. "And then I just saw a wounded gazelle on the floor, and I thought, 'You know what, let's kick him.'

It was the Aussie's fourth win in the octagon, and he was happy to savor it on hostile ground.

"I love having a crowd," he said. "I've been fighting at the Apex and I'm happy to hear a lot of fans in the building. I don't care, boo me."

Full Card Results

Main Card

Manon Fiorot def. Erin Blanchfield by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)

Joaquin Buckley def. Vicente Luque by TKO (punches). 3:18, Round 2

Chris Weidman def. Bruno Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Nursulton Ruziboev def. Sedriques Dumas by KO (punches), 3:18, Round 1

Kyle Nelson def. Bill Algeo by TKO (punches), 4:00, Round 1

Chidi Njokuani def. Rhys McKee by split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27)

Preliminary Card

Nate Landwehr def. Jamall Emmers by KO (punches), 4:43, Round 1

Virna Jandiroba def. Loopy Godínez by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

Julio Arce def. Herbert Burns by TKO (punches), 2:00, Round 2

Dennis Buzukja def. Connor Matthews by TKO (punches), 0:22, Round 3

Ibo Aslan def. Anton Turkalj by TKO (punch), 1:32, Round 3

Viktoriia Dudakova v Melissa Gatto - bout canceled (medical issue)

Jacob Malkoun def. Andre Petrovski by TKO (kick), 0:39, Round 2

Caolán Loughran def. Angel Pacheco by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)