After a wild night of early finishes and multiple records set inside the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, it's time to talk about what we learned from UFC 332. Natalia Silva of Brazil held off a late rally from China's Wang Cong to capture the vacant women's flyweight title in the main event via unanimous decision. In the co-headliner, Payton Talbott made a strong claim for instant bantamweight title contention with a first-round finish of Deiveson Figueiredo.
Let's take a closer look at the five biggest takeaways. In the six years since she first signed with UFC, Silva's personal story has already been filled with one moment after another of being forced to persevere in the face of injuries, delays and bad luck as the odds were so often stacked against her. So, it should come as no surprise that Silva's mountain-top moment as a professional would only come as a result of overcoming even more obstacles.
After building an early lead before speed, movement and accurate striking against Wang in their title bout for the championship belt vacated by an injured Valentina Shevchenko, Silva was forced to hold off a near-dramatic rally from her hard-punching foe in the championship rounds. Simultaneously, Silva was forced to deal with the pressure of out-sized expectations when she was thrust into the main event of a card so many pundits declared that neither she nor Wang deserved. Add to that the booing that broke out at times during the fight as the crowd was forced to come down from the high of a record-setting night of knockouts (more on that below) and you have the type of pressure that could break many fighters.
But to Silva's credit, she endured the physical pounding of this hard-fought matchup with just as much class as she showed to the crowd. Not only did Silva celebrate her moment with nothing but unbridled passion, but she also left the audience with something to think about by delivering an inspirational speech that addressed the criticism she (and the fight) had endured before challenging anyone listening to fight for their dreams, regardless of others' opinions. Silva tied Shevchenko for the division record of nine consecutive wins to remain unbeaten in the UFC while winning her 14th consecutive fight overall.
This is what it means to @nataliasilvaufc ❤️📺 #UFC332 on @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/ZOKHEWiESQ Talbott, a super prospect at bantamweight, was given somewhat of a showcase treatment on Saturday in the co-main event when he was paired against 38-year-old Deiveson Figueiredo, a two-time former flyweight champion. Entering as a massive betting favorite, Talbott completely delivered by brutalizing Figueiredo en route to a first-round TKO win, one fight after he battered and retired former two-division champion Henry Cejudo. But Talbott, who is 6-1 since his 2023 UFC debut and entered the fight unranked at 135 pounds, is simply too sublime -- already -- to continue feasting on aging names or even traditional contenders.
As both Talbott and UFC analyst Daniel Cormier called for after the fight, the right opponent to match Talbott against is former champion Sean O'Malley in a No. 1 contender's fight. Talbott is so good that he has had trouble getting quality opponents, which played a big role in his 10-month layoff. He also accused O'Malley of turning down a fight against him at the White House in June.
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