Brazilian stars fall on UFC Fight Night 119 card in Sao Paulo

Derek Brunson made sure Machida never got a chance to find his footing.

Brunson recorded a first-round knockout for the second straight time and sixth in his last eight fights, dropping Machida with a big left and then following up with short punches on the ground at 2:30 of the first round.

“Lyoto Machida does not have a lot of flaws in his game,” Brunson said. “He is a very experienced guy that has been out there for a long time. I did not expect a quick finish, but I knew I didn’t want to leave it to decision.”

Machida, now fighting at middleweight, had been out of action due to an 18-month suspension for a violation of the UFC’s anti-doping policy.

He wasn’t the only beloved Brazilian to lose on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 119 card in Sao Paulo.

Demian Maia dropped a unanimous decision to rising welterweight star Colby Covington.

Covington didn’t make many fans in the arena either with the one-sided victory or his post-fight comments.

“Brazil, you’re a dump,” he said during his interview in the cage. “All you filthy animals suck!”

He walked back to the locker room with a horde of security under a barrage of food and drinks from the fans.

Covington called out welterweight champ Tyron Woodley for a title shot after his fifth straight win.

While he’s not likely to get that shot just yet, the 29-year-old Californian undoubtedly boosted his standing in the division with the performance in a win over Maia, who was coming off an unsuccessful title bid against Woodley in July.

Also on the card, John Lineker won for the fifth time in six fights since moving back up to bantamweight when he won a unanimous decision over Marlon Vera.

He was not overly pleased with the performance.

“I’ve been out for 10 months and, whether you want it or not, the pace is not the same,” he said. “It was not one of my best performances, but a win is a win, no matter what. Now I want to go home, recover, and train hard for the next fight. I would very much like to face one of the top five in the division.”

Fellow bantamweight Pedro Munhoz won for the fourth straight time with a first-round submission of Rob Font.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” he said of improving to 3-1 in four fights in his hometown of Sao Paulo. “Rob Font is a tough guy, the only defeat he had in the UFC was to John Lineker by decision. I was the first in history to finish him.”

Lightweight Francisco Trinaldo bounced back from his first loss since 2014 with a unanimous-decision win over Jim Miller.

He had his seven-fight winning streak snapped by Kevin Lee in March and was pleased to get back in the win column.

“It was a good fight,” Trinaldo said. “Jim Miller is a great fighter. I did not do what I would like to have done, which was knock him out, but I knew I was going to win. It was important to win again. Kevin Lee was a misstep, but I’m still going to beat him up.”

Middleweight Thiago Santos scored a dramatic knockout of Jack Hermansson with just one second remaining in the first round.

Three submission victories highlighted the preliminary card, including a d’Arce choke win for Vicente Luque over welterweight Niko Price in the second round.

Middleweight Antonio Carlos Junior used a rear-naked choke to finish Jack Marshman in the first round and Marcelo Golm used the same technique to finish Christian Colombo in the first round.

Deiveson Figueiredo handed flyweight Jarred Brooks the first loss of his career by taking a split decision in which Brooks won all three rounds on the card of the dissenting judge.

Lightweight Jared Gordon got the unanimous nod from all three judges over Hacran Dias and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos won a unanimous decision over welterweight Max Griffin.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.