The final UFC event of the year didn’t feature much ranked action, but it may have decided the first challenger for new UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van.
Before UFC Vegas 112 officially closed out the UFC’s 2025 schedule and partnership with ESPN, UFC 323 took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and saw two belts changes hands in the night’s main and co-main events.
Van now holds the UFC flyweight title after long-reigning champion Alexandre Pantoja injured his arm less than a minute into the opening round, and at the moment it’s unclear how long Pantoja will need to recover before he’s able to try and reclaim his belt.
Manel Kape Poised For UFC Title Shot?
The UFC ideally would like to book an immediate rematch between Van and Pantoja, but Manel Kape also put himself in the conversation for a flyweight title shot when he stopped Brandon Royval in the final UFC fight of the year.
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With the win, Kape vaulted up four places in the UFC flyweight rankings to take former title challenger Royval’s #2 spot, just behind Pantoja. “Starboy” also now sits one spot ahead of Tatsuro Taira, who made his own case for a title shot when he stopped two-time flyweight titleholder Brandon Moreno on the main card of UFC 323.
A former bantamweight champion with RIZIN, Kape fell short against Pantoja in his UFC debut before he also dropped a split decision to Matheus Nicolau. A four-fight win streak was halted by Muhammad Mokaev at UFC 304, but the 32-year-old has now finished three-straight opponents with strikes since then.
Other Rankings Movement After UFC Vegas 112
The UFC Vegas 112 headliner was easily the most significant bout of the night, but there were also some other rankings changes this week both related and unrelated to that event’s results.
The final UFC card of 2025 did cause a shift at featherweight, as Kevin Vallejos has now broken into the rankings at #13 after knocking out Giga Chikadze in the night’s co-main event. Dan Ige and David Onama both dropped one spot each to #14 and #15, while Jean Silva and Josh Emmett swapped places to put Silva at #10 and Emmett at #11.
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Although none of them fought at UFC Vegas 112, Shavkat Rakhmonov also traded spots with the previously #2-ranked Ian Machado Garry, and Geoff Neal switched with Colby Covington in the lower part of the UFC welterweight rankings.
Payton Talbott also moved up one more spot to #11 at bantamweight after breaking into the division’s Top 15 with a win over Henry Cejudo in the latter fighter’s retirement bout at UFC 323, pushing Rob Font down to #12 and Vinicius Oliveira down to #13.
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