| UFC on ESPN: Song vs. Simón | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC on ESPN: Song vs. Simón | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | April 29, 2023 (2023-04-29) | |||
| Venue | UFC Apex | |||
| City | Enterprise, Nevada, United States | |||
| Attendance | Not announced[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC on ESPN: Song vs. Simón (also known asUFC on ESPN 45, andUFC Vegas 72) was amixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on April 29, 2023, at theUFC Apex facility inEnterprise, Nevada, part of theLas Vegas Metropolitan Area, United States.[2]
A lightweight bout betweenArman Tsarukyan andRenato Moicano was expected to headline the event.[3] However, Moicano withdrew due to an injury two weeks before the event and the bout was canceled.[4] As a result, a bantamweight bout betweenSong Yadong and formerLFA Bantamweight ChampionRicky Simón was moved fromUFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs. Blaydes to instead headline this event.[5]
A middleweight bout betweenCody Brundage andRodolfo Vieira took place at the event.[6] They were previously scheduled to meet atUFC Fight Night: Nzechukwu vs. Cuțelaba but Vieira pulled out from the event due to undisclosed reasons.[7]
A heavyweight bout betweenJake Collier and Martin Buday was originally expected to take place two weeks prior atUFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Allen but was moved to this event for unknown reasons.[8]
During fight week, three bouts booked for this event suffered changes: a women's strawweight bout between formerInvicta FC Strawweight ChampionEmily Ducote andPolyana Viana was rescheduled forUFC Fight Night: Pennington vs. Aldana 2 on May 20; Ange Loosa pulled out of his welterweight bout against Joshua Quinlan for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by currentLFA Welterweight Champion Trey Waters; and a lightweight bout betweenNatan Levy and Pete Rodriguez was rescheduled forUFC on ABC: Rozenstruik vs. Almeida on May 13 due to an undisclosed issue on Rodriguez's side.[9][10]
A day later, another fight changed asBrian Kelleher pulled out of his bantamweight bout againstJourney Newson. He was replaced byMarcus McGhee in a catchweight bout of 140 pounds.[11]
At the weigh-ins, promotional newcomers Irina Alekseeva and Hailey Cowan missed weight. Alekseeva weighed in at 140 pounds and Cowan weighed in at 137.5 pounds, four pounds and one and a half pounds over the women's bantamweight non-title fight limit respectively. Both bouts proceeded at catchweight with Alekseeva being fined 30 percent and Cowan 20 percent of their purses, which went to their opponentsStephanie Egger and Jamey-Lyn Horth respectively.[12]
| Main Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Bantamweight | Song Yadong | def. | Ricky Simón | TKO (punches) | 5 | 1:10 | |
| Middleweight | Caio Borralho | def. | Michał Oleksiejczuk | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 2 | 2:49 | |
| Middleweight | Rodolfo Vieira | def. | Cody Brundage | Submission (arm-triangle choke) | 2 | 1:28 | |
| Featherweight | Fernando Padilla | def. | Julian Erosa | TKO (punches) | 1 | 1:41 | |
| Heavyweight | Marcos Rogério de Lima | def. | Waldo Cortes-Acosta | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Welterweight | Trey Waters | def. | Josh Quinlan | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+) | |||||||
| Heavyweight | Martin Buday | def. | Jake Collier | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Cody Durden | def. | Charles Johnson | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Catchweight (140 lb) | Irina Alekseeva | def. | Stephanie Egger | Submission (kneebar) | 1 | 2:11 | |
| Catchweight (140 lb) | Marcus McGhee | def. | Journey Newson | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 2 | 2:03 | |
| Catchweight (137.5 lb) | Jamey-Lyn Horth | def. | Hailey Cowan | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[14]
