Ollie Schmid got his first UFC win Saturday night at UFC Vegas 124, and he had to get up off the canvas, figuratively and nearly literally, to keep it. The featherweight took a unanimous decision over Road to UFC winner Keiichiro Nakamura at Meta Apex in Las Vegas, with all three judges turning in 29-28 cards. MiddleEasy’s recap described Schmid weathering a late knockdown and a closing surge from Nakamura before the horn sounded at 5:00 of Round 3.
The math tells the story of the fight’s shape. Schmid did enough in the first two rounds to bank them on every card, and then he held on through a third that belonged to Nakamura. The UFC’s Canadian account, which tagged Schmid with a Hungarian flag, summed it up with “Until the very end!” That about covers it.
The result flips both records in a meaningful way. Sherdog listed Schmid at 4-3 and 0-1 in the UFC going in; he leaves at 5-3 and 1-1. Nakamura arrived 8-1 and unbeaten in the promotion at 1-0, and now sits at 8-2, 1-1. Both men made weight on Friday without drama, Nakamura at 145 pounds and Schmid at 145.5.
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Nakamura was the popular pick. MMA Fighting’s staff predictions had him winning, and Japanese MMA coach and commentator Kenji Osawa went further before the walkouts, writing on X that both fighters were long-range strikers, that Schmid would likely mix in grappling, and that Nakamura, who is good at getting back to his feet, would drop Schmid with a left straight in Round 2. Osawa called it a lock.
After the decision, Osawa offered a more thoughtful read. He wrote that, in his own view, Nakamura could create the kind of chaos he produced in Round 3 much earlier if he committed from the opening bell, something Osawa said he had also seen during Nakamura’s Road to UFC run. His theory is that Nakamura’s technical skill makes him want to do things cleanly at first, which costs him time. He closed by praising the grit Nakamura showed down the stretch.
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The bout opened the preliminary card on a night headlined by a heavyweight scrap between Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Johnny Walker, which was assembled after Sean Brady’s injury scrapped his welterweight main event with Gabriel Bonfim. No next opponent has been announced for either featherweight.
My take: Schmid deserves more credit than a 29-28 decision on the prelims usually gets. He came in as the guy on the wrong side of the hype, a fighter with three losses on his record and a UFC debut defeat behind him, matched against a tournament winner the matchmakers clearly liked. He built a two-round lead against a dangerous striker and then refused to fold when the fight turned on him late. Osawa’s diagnosis of Nakamura rings true, too. A fighter with his tools who saves his best work for the final five minutes is going to keep losing close ones until he decides to start fast, and the third round Saturday showed exactly how good that version of him could be.
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