A dream fight and a huge championship rematch grabbed all the headlines, but it was supported by a stellar undercard full of top 15 fighters and former champions.
Michael Chiesa made what was likely a long overdue welterweight debut, as the #9 lightweight took on a former interim UFC Welterweight Champion in Carlos Condit. Condit threatened with a couple of dangerous submission attempts, but ultimately fell victim to a one armed wristlock.
#5 Featherweight Chad Mendes hoped to build on his impressive 2018 return, when he faced off with an overlooked named in the form of #10 Alexander Volkanovski. It's likely that Volkanovski's name with be overlooked no more, as he was able to withstand some big takedowns to unleash a brutal combo to Mendes that ended his night.
In the light heavyweight division, #10 Corey Anderson showed up on championship weight ahead of his fight with #5 Ilir Latifi. Latifi had actually said before the bout he's considering a move to heavyweight as to not possibly clash with his friend and training partner Alexander Gustafsson.
#14 Middleweight Uriah Hall has been trying to hang on to his spot in the division, and faced Bevon Lewis at the event. While Bevon Lewis had the upper hand throughout the duration of the fight, a counter right hand put him on the ground and got Hall his latest win via TKO.
ONE shot! @UriahHallMMA closes the show in the 3rd with a beautiful counter right hand! What a comeback win! #UFC232 pic.twitter.com/LY1gt8zUA6
— UFC (@ufc) December 30, 2018
Another #14 ranked fighter in Douglas Silva De Andrade didn't meet the same good fortune. Highly touted prospect Petr Yan put the pain on Andrade, causing the latter's corner to throw in the towel after the second round.
While not ranked (UFC doesn't really have Women's Featherweight Rankings) Megan Anderson looked to regain some steam when fighting the #5 Bantamweight Cat Zingano. The fight ended in controversial fashion when Zingano avoided a head kick, but not Anderson's toes to the eye, and was finished shortly thereafter in round one.
Elsewhere on the show, former UFC Heavyweight Champion #13 Andrei Arlovski got another crack at UFC glory, but came up short in a snoozer split decision loss against Walt Harris. Hall of Famer BJ Penn also had his latest "comeback" attempt when facing Ryan Hall, which was stopped in the first round after a heel hook out of an Imanari Roll.
The first man to EVER submit BJ Penn.
— UFC (@ufc) December 30, 2018
Wow, @RyanHall5050 #UFC232 pic.twitter.com/dCvhlVBP0g
Fightful.com and FightfulMMA.com have full live coverage of UFC 232 at this link, and a live post-show podcast at this link. We'll also have Sean Ross Sapp's watch/don't watch picks and notes in the morning. As a programming note, the FightfulMMA.com Podcast will take place on Thursday of next week, as Showdown Joe is traveling home from Japan's Rizin event.
