UFC 266 Instant Reaction

Kevin Iole recaps the UFC 266 PPV event from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Video Transcript

- What is up, everybody. This is Kevin Iole from Yahoo Sports T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. UFC 266 just ended. Alex Volkanovski retains his featherweight championship in an incredible fight beating Brian Ortega by unanimous decision.

Volkanovski went off as a 2 to 1 favorite at BETMGM. He survived two amazing submission attempts by Ortega in the third round. Ortega took a beating and kept coming. Both of his eyes were cut and swollen.

At one point after the third around, the doctors were talking about stopping the fight because Ortega was so swollen up. He showed a lot of heart going on. Volkanovski showed a lot of heart. Just an amazing performance.

In the fight everybody wanted to see Nick Diaz return looking for his first win in 10 years. It was his first fight since 2015, but it was not to be Diaz look slow, did not look like he really was the same Nicky as we saw before. The odds really took a swing on Thursday at the press conference. Diaz was a minus 120 favorite at BETMGM.

Robbie Lawler closed at minus 155 today. Diaz at and plus 130. Lawler stopped them in the fourth round. He dropped Nick Diaz with a hook. Diaz went down, seemed to twist his knee, told me as he was leaving, he hurt his knee a little bit.

In the cage, he said, no excuses. He lost. I doubt we'll see him back. In the other title fight, Valentina Shevchenko also in the fourth round, stopped Lauren Murphy.

She went off as a minus 1,500 day but barely got touched. Dominated Laura Murphy and stopper with strikes. From T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for Yahoo Sports, I am Kevin Iole.