Sometimes, main events are 50/50 propositions.

And other times, they’re showcases for a fighter looking to climb the ladder.

The heavyweight headliner atop Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night show at Ibirapuera Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, was most certainly the latter.

Brazilian hero Jailton Almeida was ranked ninth among the promotion’s big men and had a chance to claim a spot in the division’s upper echelon when he met former title challenger and longtime contender Derrick Lewis in a five-rounder.

No foe had lasted eight minutes with Almeida across five octagonal bouts—two KOs, three submissions—since his winning appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021. Lewis, meanwhile, was one of the company’s highest-profile KO artists, having stopped 14 foes with strikes in his 18 wins since debuting in 2014.

They topped a 10-bout card that included at least one Brazilian in each fight, including a co-main in which welterweight Gabriel Bonfim faced streaking Danish import Nicolas Dalby, who’d won three straight and five of six (plus a no contest) since his second UFC stint began in 2019.

The main-card opener between Rodolfo Vieira and Armen Petrosyan was canceled when Petrosyan fell ill in his locker room shortly before the fight. The catchweight prelim finale between Elves Brener and Kaynan Kruschewsky was moved to the main card in its place.

The B/R combat team took it all in and compiled a real-time list of the event’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.