Luana Santos beat Yana Santos by unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 123 on Saturday night, with all three judges scoring it 29-28. She did it the way she’s been doing it lately: get the takedown, take the back, and stay there until somebody rings a bell. Cageside Press counted the result as her fourth straight bantamweight win.
The first round was the one Yana could point to. Luana went looking for judo throws early, and Yana kept lowering her hips and killing them before they got going. The pair spent a long stretch tied up on the fence until the referee broke them, and once they were back in open space Yana was the sharper striker, finishing combinations with hard calf kicks that clearly landed better than Luana’s. Each judge handed her one round, and that’s the obvious one.
Then Round 2 started and the fight turned into a hostage situation. Luana landed a clean right hand, shot, finished a takedown inside Yana’s closed guard and worked around to the back. Yana stood up more than once. Luana rode her, hunted chokes, got to mount at one point, and dragged her back down as the horn sounded. Round 3 was more of the same. With a little over four minutes left Luana got to the body, put Yana down and took the back again. Yana cleared a hook, got to her guard, got to her feet, and Luana laced the right leg and returned her to the canvas. She was still holding back control with 10 seconds left.
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After the fight, the UFC’s account posted a short line from the winner: “I’m doing what I love.” The same post said she has her eyes on the top of the division.
The promotion’s stats feed muddies the count a little. Cageside and the UFC’s own post-fight message both call this four in a row, but a separate UFC News graphic listing the longest active bantamweight win streaks put Luana at five, tied with Joselyne Edwards and behind Ailin Perez at seven. Either way she’s sitting near the top of that list, which is the kind of thing matchmakers notice.
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Here’s the number people will actually argue about. Aaron Bronsteter pointed out on X that Luana has won her last three fights by decision while averaging 11 significant strikes per fight, which works out to less than one per minute. Alexander K. Lee quoted that stat with a single unamused emoji, which felt like the right review.
My take: I don’t care how many strikes she lands if the other woman spends 10 minutes trying to peel her off. A win streak built on back control is a real skill, and bettors who keep fading grapplers because the fights look boring are paying for that habit. The problem shows up later. Against someone ranked near the top who can actually stop the first shot, Yana proved for five minutes what happens when Luana can’t get the takedown, and that version of the fight looked a lot closer. If she wants a top contender next, that first-round tape is what the other camp will be studying.
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