Alexandre Pantoja vs Steve Erceg – UFC 301 LIVE: Start time, undercard results and…

Smith: ‘I’m a big fan of him but at the end of the day there are levels to this s***. You have to remember this guy is undefeated so has no reason to question himself or back out of anything so I knew I could keep my hands together. Part of my leg kick defence is ‘f**k it, I’ll do it to you first. I can remember what losses feel like, I’m happy to be back in here, maybe I’m not so f***ing old.’

Incredible. Petrino looked massive and was throwing some serious heat. He then transitioned to a takedown but Smith locked in a guillotine and forced the tap, the first of which the referee missed. Old Lion Heart has some scrap left in him. Bravo.

Smith has been there, done it, got the t-shirt but still says he has a lot left in the tank. The light-heavyweight veteran takes on a hungry young lion with four UFC wins under his belt already in Petrino. The Brazilian is 11-0 and this would be the biggest win of his career by some margin. Is he a future champion? We might have a better idea about that tonight.

A knockdown, backflip and guillotine finish all in under a minute. Surely that’s worth about five bonuses. Ridiculous display and Pereira needs a highly ranked opponent next.

This man is a sensation. One of the UFC’s best showmen does it again. Pereira knocks his man down, does a backflip and lands his shin on the shoulder and head of his opponent – which could still get him in trouble – he then locks in a choke and even though Potieria taps, he still goes out unconscious afterwards.

Brazil vs Ukraine now. Pereira has been resurgent with seven wins in a row and hasn’t lost for four-and-a-half years. He’s looking to roll on towards a high middleweight ranking, but Potieria is a dangerous man in his own right, though he’s 2-3 in the UFC so far.

What a legendary career. Shogun receives the acclaim of his home crowd as his induction is announced on the big screen along with a highlight reel, including of course his absolute war with Dan Henderson.

Not one Paul Craig fans will want to watch back – fair play to Borralho, a great finish.

Borralho: ‘I told you all I was going to KO him! And I did it. Borralho, soldier of God, fighting nerds! It was the smartest way to beat this guy, I did my homework and when the test comes I get an A+. First I want my 50k bonus and then I want a top five or ten fighter. I want to test myself against Jared Cannonier.’

Hugely impressive win for Borralho! That’s 13 wins in a row for him and Craig was out bad. He is taking a while to get up. Borralho rocked him back, followed up before landing one massive fight-ending straight left that crumpled his man. Biggest win of the Brazilian’s career by a decent margin.

Borralho lands a few heavy shots and rocks Craig’s chin but doesn’t wobbly the Scot too badly. The optics are poor, however and he has Craig lunging attempting to pull guard, drawing jeers from the crowd. Easy one to score.

Craig’s ground game is sensational and everyone knows that’s his strength. But he feels he is well rounded now and in his natural weight class. He’s 1-1 so far at middleweight and needs a win if he’s to climb back into the upper echelons.

He’s the order of play for the main card – how many Brazilians do you have winning?

The Brazilians have mostly been winning tonight so far but now we’re getting into the meat of it. Pantoja and Aldo are the big two later for the home crowd. Brazilian fighters are 6-2 so far and favourites to go 7-2 with Paul Craig first up on the main card and a heavy underdog. He’s been in that position before and loves it, let’s see if he can do another Paul Craig special.

A few reports that the doctor said ‘fractura’ which doesn’t need google translation. Shore looked like he had a bullet hole in the leg but did seem to be moving around without too much of a problem.

Shore’s leg is obliterated, splits open and pours with blood to the point where the doctor comes in. And the fight is waved off. Maybe they think it is down to the bone. Brito dominated but its a shame to end it like that, a well earned victory for the more powerful man there, though and Shore looked physically overmatched.

Big first round for the Brazilian who swarms like an angry hornets nest. He pushes the pace and lands a number of heavy leg kicks. Shore does well to avoid the big strikes and ties up his man but definitely drops the opener on the score cards. Has he drained energy from the muscle-bound Brazilian?

Iasmin Lucindo has the home fans back on their feet, winning a decision over Kowalkiewicz to move to 3-1 in the UFC.

Now we have Jack Shore and no doubt plenty of his Welsh compatriots have stayed up for this one.

He has been so impressive in his career so far but moved up to featherweight after losing to Ricky Simon. He won his first battle at 145-lbs and faces a tough one in Brito tonight, who is a hell of an athlete. His father has now beaten the cancer that was an understandable distraction last year and is in his corner as always.

Ruffy was one of the Brazilian winners tonight on the early pre-lims and snuck in this cheeky manouvre –

I will always love how seriously Bruce Buffer takes his job – part of the fabric of the UFC and clearly needs to make sure his hamstrings are firing before he can do his thing. Not sure why. But who am I to question the master.

An impressive win for the man from Kyrgyzstan (and yes I did have to look up the spelling), he rounded off the third with a massive right hand in the last second to send Brener flying and rubber stamp his display, which at times was messy and lethargic but good enough to get the job done.

Gomis weirdly cut too much weight, looked awful wobbling to the scales and then his fight was pulled from the card. Hopefully the Frenchman doesn’t suffer ill effects and it will be interesting to hear the full story when it comes out.

Matt Brown has called it a day in a fitting way, no fuss, no nonsense, just as he fought. The UFC veteran has decided to hang up the gloves with the most KOs in welterweight history and we’ll forever remember his ‘hellbows’. Well played.

One of the away fighters in the lion’s den tonight earns a decision win. Drakkar Klose scores 29-28s across the board to beat Joaquim Silva, who finished well and threatened with a couple of late guillotines. There was too much sweat by then to make it stick and he dropped the decision.

I can’t wait to see Jack Shore and Paul Craig step into enemy territory tonight and do their thing.

Shore is a much happier man at featherweight but faces a stern challenge at the top of the pre-lims against Joanderson Brito, before Scotland’s Paul Craig is a big underdog against Caio Borralho on the main card later.

Two KO wins and two on the scorecards among the early action tonight.

Alessandro Costa defeated Kevin Borges to kick things off with a second-round finish before Ismael Bonfim enhanced his burgeoning reputation by overcoming Vinc Pichel.

Dione Barbosa then claimed a decision before Mauricio Ruffy beat Jamie Mullarkey with a first round knockout.

We’re off to Rio de Janeiro tonight, one of the great fight cities of the world. UFC 300 preceeded this card and it was always going to be a tough act to follow, but let’s hope the Brazilians can light it up to get the always febrile crowd on their feet. Keep it here for all the action on the pre-lims and then main card before we have the flyweight title on the line a little later.