Katlyn Cerminara went more than 10 years without finishing anybody. On Saturday night at UFC Edmonton she fixed that with 14 seconds left in the opening round, stopping short-notice UFC newcomer Mackenzie Stiller with punches at 4:46 of Round 1 on the UFC Fight Night 291 prelims. MMA Junkie reported it as the first stoppage of her UFC tenure and her first finish anywhere since March 2016.
It was also her first win since May 2022. Cerminara stepped away from competition to give birth to her first child, a layoff the UFC’s Paramount+ account put at two years, and before that break she had lost back-to-back fights to Maycee Barber and Manon Fiorot. She’s now 19-6 overall and 12-6 in the UFC. Stiller drops to 6-2 and 0-1 in the promotion.
The result carries a bit of history, too. UFC News pointed out on X that this was Cerminara’s 10th win at women’s flyweight, second most in division history behind Valentina Shevchenko’s 12.
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How it ended
According to Cageside Press’ round-by-round account, Stiller gave up a lot of size and tried to solve that by charging. She threw combinations from the opening bell and kept trying to get inside Cerminara’s reach. Cerminara answered with a jab that moved Stiller backward, and when Stiller threw a body kick she ate a clean right-hand counter for it. From there Cerminara settled into her one-two and started firing knees every time Stiller rushed in, which was often.
Stiller had her moments. A few spinning backfists fell short, but she did land a clean head kick that Cerminara never saw. Cerminara didn’t chase it back. She kept working at her own pace, slipped out of a quick takedown attempt and went right back to striking. Shortly after that she hurt Stiller, swarmed her with a barrage, and the referee stepped in.
In her post-fight interview with Paul Felder, Cerminara made her intentions plain.
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“’Blonde Fighter’ 2.0,” she said. “I’m not done yet. This was a great warmup fight. But I’m ready for anyone in this division, and I’m still here.”
TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter offered a comparison on X, calling her a female Sean Strickland in terms of style: everyone knows what she’s going to do, and beating it is the hard part.
Elsewhere on the prelims, Steven Koslow choked out Chad Anheliger at 4:31 of Round 3, Chelsea Chandler tapped Melissa Croden with a kimura at 4:52 of Round 1, and SuYoung You got a kimura of her own on Cody Chovancek at 4:19 of Round 3.
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My quick take: the head kick was the moment that tells you what this fight was. Plenty of fighters coming off a two-year layoff get tagged clean like that and start swinging to prove they’re fine. Cerminara reset, went back to the jab and the knees, and let a smaller opponent keep running into them until the opening came. She called it a warmup, and with Stiller taking the fight on short notice in her UFC debut, that’s about the right label. But a 37-year-old flyweight who just moved past everyone except Shevchenko on the wins list has earned a ranked name next. The patience was there all along, and now she’s added a finish to it.
