{"id":227294,"date":"2025-10-20T11:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T11:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227294\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T11:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T11:08:10","slug":"ufc-vancouver-rookie-report-yousri-belgaroui-and-melissa-croden-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227294\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Vancouver rookie report: Yousri Belgaroui and Melissa Croden shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

You only get one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut!<\/p>\n

Two athletes debuted in \u201cCity of Glass\u201d last night (Sat., Oct. 18, 2025) at UFC Vancouver<\/a> inside Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Both walked away with statement-making finishes<\/p>\n

Now that the dust has settled, let\u2019s grade<\/a> their respective performances below:<\/p>\n

Despite scoring a finish on Season 8 of Contender Series, Yousri Belgaroui didn\u2019t receive a UFC contract (details<\/a>). But when the promotion needed a short-notice replacement to face knockout artist Azamat Bekoev, Belgaroui finally got the call<\/a>. The fight didn\u2019t go down in August as planned, but when it finally happened in Vancouver, the 33-year-old made it count.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBaby Face Assassin\u201d looked sharp and composed. He broke Bekoev down over three rounds with brutal body knees, calf kicks, and a piston-like jab. From the start, Bekoev charged forward aggressively, but Belgaroui \u2014 an elite former kickboxer who holds a win over Alex Pereira (now his teammate) \u2014 calmly countered and took control.<\/p>\n

While he was taken down several times, he was never in danger, and even sliced Bekoev open with a nasty elbow from the bottom. His constant get-ups wore the Russian down, and his striking eventually overwhelmed him. Once Belgaroui smelled blood, he poured on the pressure and finished the fight in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n

Standing 6\u20196\u201d in the Middleweight division, Belgaroui is going to be a problem for a lot of opponents. A great next matchup? Zachary Reese feels like a fun second outing.<\/p>\n

Over the past month, two women rookies have reinvigorated the Bantamweight division \u2014 and now, Canada\u2019s Melissa Croden might be the third. She made a strong first impression in her debut, rallying from a slowish start to stop Tainara Lisboa in the third round (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Croden started cautiously in Round 1 but still rocked Lisboa with a clean straight right. In the second round, she found her rhythm, landing heavy combinations, knees in the clinch, and eventually dropping the Brazilian late in the frame.<\/p>\n

Sensing the finish, Croden came out firing in the third. Lisboa, battered and exhausted, couldn\u2019t keep up as Croden unleashed another flurry to seal the deal.<\/p>\n

At 34 years old, it\u2019s unclear if Croden can make a run toward the Top 15, but she showed real power, a solid all-around skill set, and composure under pressure. A logical next step? A fight against Ravena Oliveira, who lost earlier that same night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You only get one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut! Two athletes debuted in \u201cCity of Glass\u201d last night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,32785,85,1396,6656],"class_list":{"0":"post-227294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-mma-prospects","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-ufc-results"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}