UFC 332 takeaways: Natalia Silva won, but it’s going to take more than a real UFC bite.

UFC 332 in Salina City served up a night full of kicks. Here are the five biggest takeaways from Saturday’s event.

Natalia Silva won the fight. There is not even the slightest discussion. Despite some shaky moments in the final round, this was a night to be reckoned with. But it gradually shows that the sixth fight in the division in arguably the least interesting fight of the night is not enough to forget the name of Valentina Shevchenko.

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We know who is the queen of this kind of weight. We have known for a very long time, and we have been warned over and over again. The UFC could take his belt and give it to Silva, but without the meaning behind it, it’s a matter of honoring the leather and metal.

Silva did what he had to do and capitalized on the opportunity, which is good for him. But if people want to look at it as a real team, they need to go through “Bullet” first.

2. Payton Talbott needs a big fight – and soon

The moment Deiveson hit Figueiredo with the first straight right hand, this one felt basically over. Too sharp, too fast, and more dangerous than anything from the upper part of the jaw. From there it was like we were just waiting to see what kind of highlights Talbott would add to the reel.

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I know that the setback against Raoni Barcelos has dampened some of his hype, to lose his perfect record, but it’s three in a row for Talbott now and he looks better every time. It’s time for him to jump up a notch or two and have a legitimately big run in the next few matches. It’s only in the game, but it’s time consuming. A meeting with Sean O’Malley sounds like a whole lot of fun for everyone.

Get that great fight name, ASAP.

(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)

Court McGee fell asleep in front of his hometown fans in his untimely retirement at the age of 41. Former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, also 41, wasn’t doing much better. Rex Green 40, could do best with Esteban Ribovics, a man 10 years his junior, but still stopped late in the first round after getting three misses.

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Before this fight, Green told reporters that he understood the thinking behind winning the UFC. The purpose of the promotion, he said, was to move the younger, cheaper talent and the older, more expensive of the strongest. He spent the past 13 years in the UFC. In the canine world’s lighter weight classes, this is almost a miracle.

But you can’t keep it forever. Time catches up with everyone eventually. That’s right, in a professional fight, it wraps your head around a bunch of times when it grabs you. No one said it was funny, but it tends to be decisive.

Khaos Williams managed to get Roberto Soldic down early and give him plenty to take care of in that first frame. But once the second battle was over, it was very different. Soldic began to string together combos, mixing body shots and head shots, and thereafter Williams had to give everything he had left.

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That’s a great joke, the official website of Soldic. We have seen many imports come into other organizations and competition, especially early on. If he can look that good in his debt, he can really do some business here.

5. Out of 14 total fights, UFC 332 produced 11 knockouts — ninety of those in the first round

Things ended on a more subdued note on Saturday night, with a fairly tepid five-round event that was one of only three fights on paper to see the scorecards, but there was still a lot of hustle and frenzy in one event.

There are a lot of ways to get a card full of live finishes in MMA. Mismatches have historically been the top choice, but we haven’t seen an inordinate number of long odds here. Perhaps what he’s saying is that the UFC roster is so overflowing with talent that, while it can sometimes be harder for individuals to stand out and be remembered, it’s also possible for winners to throw very different combinations together and get something good out of it.

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