Salt Lake stunner: Gaethje kick-to-head knocks off Poirier for BMF belt at UFC 291

SALT LAKE CITY — UFC's return to Salt Lake for the second straight year did not disappoint.

Justin Gaethje made up for lost time in spectacular fashion and knocked out No. 2-ranked lightweight fighter Dustin Poirier with a second-round kick to the head to clinch the BMF title belt Saturday night in front of a sold-out Delta Center at UFC 291.

In a rematch of the UFC's 2018 fight of the year won by Poirier via fourth-round TKO, both fighters proved how much they've grown in the four years since — and Gaethje grew more, earning a lightweight title bout and punctuating his win with a celebratory backflip off the cage.

It was shades of Leon "Rocky" Edwards. There's something about UFC, Salt Lake City and head kicks.

The win marked Gaethje's first knockout victory since May 9, 2020, over Tony Ferguson at UFC 249, but his 20th win by knockout or TKO and seventh victory in his last nine fights, including Saturday's win over the minus-152 favorite by FanDuel, according to the Associated Press.

But when the final kick landed and sent Poirier to the mat, Gaethje could hardly believe it. He certainly wasn't planning for that finishing kick — let alone for it to come just one minute into the second round.

"No way. It's a second at a time in there," said the native of Safford, Arizona, who trains out of Denver. "I didn't even really understand that was working. I was trying not to get hit by that left hand as much."

The victory likely earned Gaethje — one of the most violent fighters in the promotion nicknamed "The Highlight" — a shot at the UFC lightweight title in early 2024. The winner of Saturday night's main event has been projected to face the winner of top-ranked Charles Oliveira and contender Islam Makhachev, the headline bout at UFC 294 in October.

He also earned a bonus to his share of fight purse for a card that drew $6,556,443.97 at the gate, smashing the previous venue record of $4.295 million set at UFC 278. The sell-out crowd of 18,467 also broke then-Vivint Arena's sell-out crowd of 17,500 a year ago.

But first, Jorge Masvidal draped the BMF title belt over his shoulder, a sign that Gaethje was the "Baddest (expletive)" in the top mixed martial arts promotion in North America.

"It's a pretty belt; it's going to look great in my house; it's special," Gaethje said. "Whether this was on the line tonight or not, I did something special. I'm a little bit petty, so I loved Jorge Masvidal wrapping it around me."

A former lightweight champion, Poirier matched Gaethje blow-for-blow in the first round before falling to the stunning high kick one minute into the second period — an eerily similar blow to the one Edwards drew against former champion Kamaru Usman last summer in UFC's first-ever Pay-Per-View fight in Salt Lake City.

Title bout aside, will there be a Return of the Jedi-style trilogy, a Poirier-Gaethje 3, in the cards?

"We'll see, man," Poirier said. "We're 1-1 and we knocked each other out. We'll see."

It wouldn't come too soon, Gaethje added.

"In the cage, after the fight, I said, 'hey man, let's both agree never to fight each other again,'" he recalled with a slight chuckle. "But we're 1-1, so we'll see. ... I would never deny him that opportunity, just like he would never deny me the opportunity. But I don't want it to be my next fight."

In the co-main event, third-ranked Jan Blachowicz controlled the first round before No. 2 middleweight Alex Pereira landed twice as many strikes in the second round to take back some control of his light heavyweight debut.

By the end of the three-round fight, Pereira clinched a win by split decision, handing the former champion Blachowicz his first loss since October 2021.

"I feel very good, getting a win against a great warrior and a former champ," Pereira said through a translator after his debut win. "We had a great plan to come to Utah two weeks before. I'm very happy."

In what many have called the deepest pay-per-view card of the year in UFC's return to Salt Lake City in back-to-back years, Kevin Holland opened with a stunning upset of No. 12-ranked welterweight Michael Chiesa via first-round submission.

After the quick work by D'Arce choke hold, Holland told cageside broadcaster Joe Rogan his preference is to move back to 185 pounds for his next fight.

"I like to eat steak," he said to an applause from the sold-out arena.

Bobby Green made a homecoming to Salt Lake City, where he trained with local MMA legend Jeremy Horn while a member of Strikeforce, with a bout between two of the longest-tenured lightweight fighters.

The local favorite ran into a fan favorite in former interim champion Tony Ferguson, but "King" Green landed more than twice as many strikes through the first two rounds before a third-round submission with an arm-triangle choke with six seconds remaining.

With the win, Green improved to 30-14-1 with an 11-9-1 mark in UFC fights and his first win since February 2022 in a return to the state.

"I want to honor a great young man from the state of Utah, and thank him right now for taking a poor Black kid and giving me every lesson I've learned," Green said. "He's been a huge part of my trial and journey. ... Jeremy, they still ain't left yet."

No. 10 Derrick Lewis cruised to his UFC-record 14th knockout in the promotion, submitting 15th-weight heavyweight Marcos Rogerio de Lima with a flying knee to the chin in 33 seconds.

The New Orleans native who fights out of Houston celebrated his first win since December 2021 with a crowd-pleasing strip of his shorts in front of a crowd of celebrities, Jazz coach Will Hardy and several players, former stars John Stockton and Karl Malone, and former BMF belt holder Jorge Masvidal.

"The win means a lot to me," Lewis said. "I had a lot of pressure on me coming into this fight, and I just wanted to prove to everyone that I'm still one of the best fighters in the world. ... I finally did everything right; I trained my (butt) off for weeks. I didn't drink any soda — that was probably the biggest change."

In preliminary bouts that led up to the main card, Miranda Maverick opened the evening with an armbar submission over Brazilian Priscila Cachoeira. The Denver-based fighter made a return to Salt Lake City after her bout from last year's UFC 278 was a late scratch for medical reasons.

Uros Medic added a TKO submission over Matthew Semelsberger in a welterweight contest, and Jake Matthews submitted Darrius Flowers in the second of three welterweight prelims.

Roman Kopylov earned a rousing ovation Saturday night with a high kick to submit Claudio Rubeiro in a middleweight match — a move that drew comparisons to last year's Fight of the Night when Edwards knocked out Kumaru Usman in the UFC 278 main event.

CJ Vergara held off Vinicius Salvador by unanimous decision at flyweight, and Brazilian Gabriel Bonfim made quick work of welterweight challenger Trevin Giles with a submission in just 1:13.

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