3 of the best moments of UFC Vegas 97

UFC Vegas 97 took place at the UFC APEX on Saturday, Sept. 7, and featured a lot of young and hungry up-and-comers. The main event saw a welterweight bout where No. 6 ranked Gilbert Burns met No. 8 ranked Sean Brady with both fighters looking to make a statement. The co-main event saw No. 6 Jessica Andrade go up against No. 8 Natalia Silva in a women's flyweight bout. We also saw a lot more happen, including fighters on the rise who continue to make statements. While this wasn't one of the UFC's bigger cards, there are still some fun moments you should see if you didn't tune in live.

3. Controversy reigns in Jacqueline Amorim's victory

In the third prelim bout of the night, we saw Jacqueline Amorim take on Vanessa Demopoulos in a women's strawweight bout. Amorim came into this fight having won her last two fights against Montserrat Ruiz in 2023, and Cory McKenna in March. As for Demopoulos, she also came in on a two-fight win streak, defeating Kanako Murata in 2023, and Emily Ducote in May.

A win here for either woman would have been big. However, Amorim put Demopoulos away fairly early into the fight. At 3:28 of the first round, Amorim forced Demopoulos to submit to an armbar. At first, this looked like a clean submission. However, looking back on it and seeing the replay, Demopoulos could have a case with some glove grabbing which was done on Amorim's end.

Demopoulos claims that Amorim was able to get fingers inside of her glove. This could have helped Amorim leverage the submission hold and force Demopoulos to submit even more quickly. Amorim worked for a submission almost the entire fight, and she was eventually able to find it. From the second the armbar was attempted, Demopoulos yelled at the referee that Amorim had fingers in her glove.

Even after the fight had concluded, Demopoulos still pleaded her case to referee Jacob Montalvo. Unfortunately for her, that pleading didn't get her anywhere, and Amorim walked away with the win. Following the bout, Amorim denied that anything illegal happened. Despite the controversy, this was Amorim's third straight win.

2. Chris Padilla's elbow from hell on Rongzhu

In the final prelim match of the night, we saw Chris Padilla square off with Rongzhu. This fight marked Rongzhu's return to the promotion after being released. Rongzhu got an invitation to compete in the Road To UFC tournament which helped lead him to his spot tonight against Padilla. Rongzhu went undefeated in the tournament, winning three bouts in a row to secure his new UFC contract.

Unfortunately for Rongzhu, Padilla had other plans. Padilla last fought in April when he defeated James Llontop via submission in the first round. This fight largely went in the favor of Padilla. The first round saw Padilla land more significant strikes on Rongzhu, but none were big enough to finish him. Fast forward to the second round, and that changed very quickly.

At 4:14 of the second round, Padilla landed a massive elbow on Rongzhu which would end up winning him the bout. Rongzhu instantly complained as he thought it was a poke to the eye at first. However, upon looking back, it was an elbow that instantly zipped Rongzhu's eye shut. Padilla won this fight due to a doctor's stoppage in a rather convincing way. This could have been one of the most brutal knockouts on the night, and it's very easy to see why.

1. Natalia Silva makes a statement against Jessica Andrade

In the co-main event of UFC Vegas 97, No. 6 Jessica Andrade took on No. 8 Natalia Silva in a women's flyweight bout. Andrade comes into this fight having won her last two fights against Mackenzie Dern last year, and Marina Rodriguez in April. As for Silva, she has been on quite the winning streak as of late, most recently defeating Viviane Araujo earlier this year in February.

Silva has been on a crazy run as of late. Andrade, being a former Strawweight Women's Champion, would be a massive win, if Silva was able to pull it out. Silva would be instantly put into any title conversations, and could even set up a title eliminator fight, or a fight with the No. 1 contender, for the Women's Flyweight Championship.

Ultimately, the fight between Silva and Andrade went the distance. The judges scored Silva as the winner via unanimous decision. A victory over Andrade is a huge deal for Silva and that cannot be understated. Looking forward, Silva could very well enter any title conversations. After the fight, Silva called her shot saying she wanted to be champion. It should be interesting to see how this plays out, but one thing we know for sure is Silva is on an incredible run.