UFC 278 went down on Saturday night at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City. In the main event, Leon Edwards pulled off the upset by knocking out Kamaru Usman in the fifth round. The Brit had a solid first round, taking Usman down and controlling him for nearly two minutes, but the Nigerian used his wrestling from the second round onwards to dominate Edwards on the mat. Usman was on course for his sixth successful title defence, but just 56 seconds before the final bell, ‘Rocky’ pulled off a hail mary knockout to capture the 170 pound title.
In the co-main event, Paulo Costa defeated Luke Rockhold by unanimous decision in a highly entertaining fight. The Brazilian landed the bigger shots and pushed the pace as expected, but Rockhold showed immense heart despite gassing out in the first round. The former middleweight champ announced his retirement following his loss.
Elsewhere on the UFC 278 main card, Merab Dvalishvili scored the biggest win of his career by scoring a unanimous decision victory over Jose Aldo in a fight that failed to live up to its expectations, Lucie Pudilova made a successful return to the UFC by stopping Wu Yanan in the second round and Tyson Pedro improved to two wins in a row by stopping Harry Hunsucker in a little over a minute.
UFC 278 Results
Main Card
Leon Edwards defeats Kamaru Usman by fifth round KO (4:04)
Paulo Costa defeats Luke Rockhold by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Merab Dvalishvili defeats Jose Aldo by unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 30–27)
Lucie Pudilova defeats Wu Yanan by second-round TKO (4:04)
Tyson Pedro defeats Harry Hunsucker by first-round TKO (1:05)
Prelims
Marcin Tybura defeats Alexander Romanov by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)
Jared Gordon defeats Leonardo Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Sean Woodson vs Luis Saldana ruled split draw (29-27, 27-29, 28-28)
Ange Loosa defeats AJ Fletcher by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Early Prelims
Amir Albazi defeats Francisco Figueiredo by first round rear naked choke submission (4:34)
Aori Qileng defeats Jay Perrin by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Victor Altamirano defeats Daniel Lacerda by first-round TKO (3:39)
