UFC Fight Night 228 Prelims: Miles Johns Powers Past Dan Argueta in Las Vegas

Miles Johns had more horsepower when it mattered most.

The Marathon MMA rep took another step forward in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division with a unanimous decision over fellow former Legacy Fighting Alliance titleholder Dan Argueta in the featured UFC Fight Night 228 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Scores were 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.

Argueta (9-2, 1-2 UFC) had his moments, including a first-round exchange that saw him climb to the back and threaten with a rear-naked choke. Even so, Johns (14-2, 5-2 UFC) stayed calm under fire and slowly but surely turned the tide with concussive multi-punch bursts and savage inside kicks to the lower leg. Argueta never stopped moving forward but increasingly wandered into his opponent’s heavy hands. By the time it was over, he had suffered considerable damage to his eye and was bleeding heavily from the nose.

Johns has won four of his past five bouts.

Meanwhile, former King of the Cage champion Tim Means put away Andre Fialho with a knee strike and follow-up punches in the third round of their welterweight confrontation. Fialho (16-8, 2-5 UFC) succumbed to blows 1:15 into Round 3, suffering his fourth consecutive defeat.

Means (33-15-1, 15-12 UFC) buried the Kill Cliff Fight Club product with overwhelming output. He attacked the legs, body and head with equal aplomb and eventually wore down Fialho. Means had him reeling in the first and second rounds, then closed the deal in the third. There, he landed a brutal two-punch combination to the head, pressed Fialho to the fence and let the punches fly until Fialho folded at his feet.

The victory was Means’ first since June 26, 2021.

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Elsewhere, Jacob Malkoun was disqualified for an illegal elbow strike in the first round of his middleweight encounter with Factory X rep Cody Brundage. The anticlimactic conclusion came 4:15 into Round 1.

A late replacement for Robert Bryczek, Brundage (9-5, 3-4 UFC) was the aggressor from the outset but soon ran into trouble. Malkoun (7-3, 3-3 UFC) wheeled behind him after a completed takedown, kept him in a kneeling position and cut loose with his ground-and-pound. However, an errant elbow connected behind the head, resulted in an immediate pause to the action and ultimately led to the stoppage.

The win snapped a three-fight losing streak for Brundage.

Further down the card, “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 30 winner Mohammed Usman rode a damaging jab to a unanimous decision over onetime Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Jake Collier in a three-round heavyweight tilt. A short-notice substitution for Valter Walker, Usman (10-2, 3-0 UFC) swept the scorecards with 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 nods from the cageside judiciary.

Collier (13-10, 5-9 UFC) staggered his counterpart with a left hook in the first round and followed it with a right uppercut at close range. However, his progress was interrupted by an inadvertent eye poke early in the middle stanza. After the restart, Usman opened a cut near the St. Louis native’s left eye with a jab and continued to target the wound to great effect. He executed a high-amplitude takedown in Round 3, settled in half guard and applied his ground-and-pound. Collier made a pass at a late kimura, only to have time run out.

Usman, 34, has rattled off three straight victories.

In other action, former Deep Jewels champion Mizuki Inoue (15-6, 2-1 UFC) returned from a three-year layoff to claim a unanimous decision over Hannah Goldy (6-4, 1-4 UFC) in a three-round women’s strawweight affair, drawing 29-28 marks from all three judges; and Montserrat Rendon (6-0, 1-0 UFC) kept her perfect professional record intact and made a successful organizational debut, as she took a split decision—29-28, 28-29, 29-28—from Tamires Vidal (7-2, 0-2) in a three-round women’s bantamweight pairing.