UFC 269 rundown: Oliveira leaves no doubt he's the best

Charles Oliveira retained the lightweight title Saturday, defeating Dustin Poirier by third-round submission in the UFC 269 main event in Las Vegas.

Julianna Pena shocked the world by submitting Amanda Nunes in Round 2 to become the new women's bantamweight champion, while Cody Garbrandt lost his flyweight debut against Kai Kara-France.

Here are four takeaways from the pay-per-view card:

Oliveira gets his due

When you hold a UFC title, you're almost always considered the best in the division.

That wasn't exactly the case when Oliveira became the lightweight champion earlier in 2021. His coronation occurred under less-than-ideal circumstances, with larger-than-life figure Khabib Nurmagomedov leaving a massive void at 155 pounds when he retired from mixed martial arts in October 2020. It would take a while for the sport to move on from such a dominant force like Nurmagomedov and automatically consider the next best lightweight the new No. 1 guy.

Except at the time of Nurmagomedov's retirement, Oliveira wasn't even considered the next best lightweight, nor was Michael Chandler, whom Oliveira beat for the vacant title in May. In the eyes of most fans, that label belonged to Poirier.

Considering that Oliveira was ranked No. 3 in the division and Chandler No. 4 when they met in the cage, nothing changed after Oliveira won. UFC belt aside, Oliveira had no business jumping over Poirier. That win didn't cement him as the top lightweight in the world.

But this victory against Poirier sure did.

There's a good case to be made that it was Oliveira's career-best performance. He did everything people thought he wouldn't be able to against one of his toughest opponents to date. Oliveira ate Poirier's biggest shots in Round 1, digging to Poirier's body and landing heavy offense in the clinch. He then controlled Poirier for all of Round 2 before quickly sinking in the standing rear-naked choke in the third.

He broke "The Diamond."

No one saw that coming. All the talk leading up to the UFC 269 main event was that Poirier had more heart and toughness, Oliveira would break in the championship rounds if the fight reached that point, and Oliveira would have to win early with a clean finish to hold on to his lightweight belt.

In reality, Oliveira did face some adversity as he got into a firefight with one of the best boxers in the UFC. Poirier tagged him hard, but "Do Bronx" didn't quit. The champ kept coming, and then midway through the fight, he used his bread-and-butter to leave no doubt about who the lightweight king is. Unless someone proves otherwise, that label belongs to Charles Oliveira.

A wide-open division

It might sound harsh, but Nunes losing is what the women's bantamweight division needed.

It is one of the most shallow weight classes in the UFC for two reasons: an overall lack of talent and Nunes cleaned it out. "The Lioness" laid waste to the division for years, forcing her to either defend the featherweight title or fight undeserving challengers at bantamweight.

Pena's upset win injects some life into the division again - the same kind of life we saw when Holly Holm dethroned the previously undefeated Ronda Rousey in 2015.

Assuming it happens, Pena-Nunes 2 will be one of the biggest fights in the division in years - and potentially ever. People will want to see if Pena can do the unthinkable twice or if Nunes just had an off night.

If Pena beats Nunes again, then we'll have officially entered a new era at 135 pounds with a division that would be wide open. The likes of Holm and Germaine de Randamie could get another shot at the title, and up-and-comers like Irene Aldana and Aspen Ladd would also be intriguing opponents for the champ.

If Nunes bounces back (as the betting odds suggest she will), then that'll set up a lucrative trilogy bout. It would be exactly the kind of rivalry the former bantamweight champion needs to reinvigorate herself more than five years after her dominant reign began.

Greatness is a special thing, no doubt. But these days in MMA, it pays to have an equal dance partner or a rival of some sort. Anderson Silva had Chael Sonnen, Jon Jones had Daniel Cormier, and Alexander Volkanovski has Max Holloway. Even if Nunes' loss proves to be merely a bump in the road, it adds a lot of much-needed buzz to the division.

What happened to Nunes?

Pena's win was clean. She did exactly what she needed to do to get the belt, breaking Nunes to achieve something no one had come close to in seven years.

But, without taking anything away from Pena's career-defining victory, what in the world happened to Nunes?

The Brazilian performed well in the first round, chopping up Pena with leg kicks and controlling her from top position. Though not overly dominant, it was an intelligent round, and intelligence is what we've come to expect from the greatest women's fighter of all time.

But that fight IQ appeared to go out the window in Round 2. Nunes quickly got into a slugfest with Pena and refused to stop throwing. Nunes landed some hard shots, but Pena landed twice as many. Nunes' striking looked sloppy, and she was fighting like it was the last minute of the fight and she was down on the scorecards.

It was truly perplexing to watch.

There are a few theories about why this happened. For starters, Nunes contracted COVID-19 in July. Some athletes have talked about how the virus has impacted their cardiovascular endurance and their breathing, so maybe Nunes is in the same boat. Or maybe we just witnessed the beginning of her decline - with her recklessness being a defining factor of that - or she just had an off night. Those have to happen to everyone at one point or another, right?

Either way, Nunes on Saturday didn't look like the fighter who beat Holm, de Randamie, Raquel Pennington, Megan Anderson, Felicia Spencer, and so many others. A rematch with Pena would offer clarity about what led to her downfall.

Garbrandt in no man's land

Former UFC bantamweight champion Garbrandt is in a precarious position after suffering a first-round TKO loss to Kara-France in his flyweight debut.

This was supposed to be the fight that turned his career around. After losing four of five outings since his 2016 title win, Garbrandt decided a move to 125 pounds could be for the best and would be his best shot at becoming a UFC champion again.

Instead, he dropped to 1-5 in his past six fights, with four of those losses coming via knockout. There's no obvious path for Garbrandt to take after this.

He likely won't stay at 125 pounds. He essentially moved down to go for a belt in a second division, and there's no point in cutting the extra weight if the title shot isn't going to happen.

But what's left for him at 135 pounds? He clearly hit a ceiling in defeats to Rob Font and Pedro Munhoz, and there are some obvious flaws in his game: his chin and his striking defense. Garbrandt should take some time off now, re-evaluate his career, really try to improve his skill set, and come back in 2022 against lesser competition.