INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 16: Robelis Despaigne fights Junior dos Santos in their heavyweight bout during the main card of Netflix's Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano at Intuit Dome on May 16, 2026 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images for Netflix)
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Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos planned to make a splash in the opening fight of the MVP MMA 1 show at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Things didn't go as planned.
Former UFC heavyweight and Olympic bronze medalist Robelis Despaigne destroyed JDS with a hellacious three-punch combination that left the latter in a heap against the Hexagon. Here is a look at the finish.
Dos Santos came out firing low leg kicks and even rocked Despaigne with a counter right in the early exchanges, briefly raising hopes that the 42-year-old still had something left in the tank. The 6-foot-7 Despaigne was definitely bothered by the leg kicks, but he responded. He shook off a takedown attempt, which has been his bugaboo, fighting with his hands down, deliberately drawing JDS into close-range exchanges where his 84-inch reach could find angles.
The finish came at 2:01 of the opening round.
Despaigne landed a clean left hook, followed by a straight right that dropped JDS, then closed with a follow-up combination on the canvas. The Brazilian veteran’s chin, which had been holding up better than recent UFC losses suggested it would, finally gave out under the Karate Combat champion's power.
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JDS framed this fight as his chance to prove he belonged in MVP’s long-term plans. He told media all week he was always looking for the knockout and that MVP had put him against Despaigne specifically because the promotion wanted highlight-reel finishes for the cameras. He got exactly the kind of fight he asked for, and the result was the wrong end of one of those highlights.
The 42-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion went 2-0 in Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA before this booking, which had built a narrative that he might have one more meaningful run left.
That narrative is now in serious doubt. JDS holds wins over Cain Velasquez, Stipe Miocic, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, Derrick Lewis and Mirko Cro Cop, but his MMA career has been on the wrong side of the aging curve since 2018, and Saturday's stoppage was the kind of one-sided beating that should prompt real conversation about retirement.
Despaigne walked in having lost his last two MMA fights. Both losses came during his short, turbulent 2024 UFC run that ended in his release after consecutive losses to Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Austen Lane. Beating a former UFC heavyweight champion in front of a Netflix global audience is the kind of resume builder that reshapes the rest of his career trajectory.
The Cuban Olympian’s profile gets a massive boost from this performance. This explains why he called out Francis Ngannou for a fight during his post-fight interview.
He went from Karate Combat champion with a 7-0 record in that ruleset to the first man to definitively close the book on JDS's MMA career, and he did it on the first MMA card ever streamed on Netflix. That visibility matters as much as the result itself.
The Despaigne knockout opened the main card, which means there's still plenty of action ahead. Salahdine Parnasse vs. Kenneth Cross at lightweight, Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry at welterweight, and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins at heavyweight all sit between this fight and the women's featherweight main event between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.
Rousey already confirmed earlier this weekend that Carano will be her final MMA fight, which adds even more emotional weight to the headliner. After what just happened to JDS, the question becomes whether the rest of the legacy names on this card can deliver better outcomes than the man who opened the show.
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