Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Las Vegas Phantom Event & Numbering Quirk
3. Quick Stats
4. Main Event: Gastelum TKOs Belfort — Then No Contest
5. Costa’s Debut, Barboza’s Flying Knee & The Card
6. Full Results
7. Bonuses & Awards
8. Records & Milestones
9. Legacy & Impact
10. FAQ
Introduction
UFC Fight Night 106: Belfort vs. Gastelum took place on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at Centro de Formação Olímpica do Nordeste in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil — broadcast on Fox Sports 1 to 946,000 average viewers (1.07M peak, 830k prelims). The card drew 14,069 fans. It was the second UFC event in Ceará, Brazil, and the first since UFC on Fuel TV: Nogueira vs. Werdum in June 2013. This event was originally expected to be numbered UFC Fight Night 107, but a planned Las Vegas event that would have been FN106 never materialised, advancing the Fortaleza card’s number by one.
Kelvin Gastelum TKO’d Vitor Belfort in round one — and then had the result overturned to a No Contest after testing positive for Carboxy-THC (a marijuana metabolite) above the WADA threshold of 180 ng/mL. No Fight of the Night bonus was awarded — unusual for a UFC Fight Night. Four Performance of the Night bonuses were awarded: Gastelum (revoked with NC), Edson Barboza (flying knee KO), Michel Prazeres (north-south choke), and Paulo Costa (UFC debut TKO). Paulo Costa’s debut was the card’s most significant long-term result: he would become UFC Middleweight Champion.
The Las Vegas Phantom Event & Numbering Quirk
The UFC had planned a Fight Night event in Las Vegas, Nevada that would have been numbered UFC Fight Night 106. That event never materialised — the UFC cancelled it in January 2017. The Fortaleza card, originally scheduled as FN107, inherited the FN106 number. The subsequent London event (Manuwa vs. Anderson) similarly bumped from FN108 to FN107. The Las Vegas cancellation created a ripple effect through the fight night numbering sequence. This meant two concurrent March 2017 fight nights — Fortaleza on March 11 and London on March 18 — were numbered 106 and 107 respectively.
The Fortaleza card was held in front of a passionate Brazilian crowd of 14,069 at the Centro de Formação Olímpica do Nordeste — an Olympic training facility. Vitor Belfort was fighting in his home country as an MMA legend in the final phase of a storied career. Kelvin Gastelum was a rising middleweight contender who had previously competed as a welterweight, with two recent MW TKO wins establishing his new divisional identity. The fight was commercially framed as a redemption test for Belfort against a legitimate contender.
Quick Stats
📅 Date: Saturday, March 11, 2017 (2nd UFC event in Ceará; numbered FN106 after Las Vegas event cancellation)
📍 Venue: Centro de Formação Olímpica do Nordeste, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
👥 Attendance: 14,069
💰 Gate: Undisclosed (Brazil event gate often not publicly released)
📺 Broadcast: Fox Sports 1 — 946,000 avg. viewers (1.07M peak, 830k prelims)
🏆 Main Event: Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum — Middleweight (Belfort 25-13; Gastelum 4-0 at MW; hostile Brazilian crowd for the American Gastelum)
✅ Result: Gastelum def. Belfort via TKO (punches) — R1, 3:52 → OVERTURNED TO NO CONTEST (Gastelum positive for Carboxy-THC above 180 ng/mL WADA threshold; 90-day suspension retroactive to March 11; 20% purse fine; announced May 7, 2017)
Main Event: Gastelum TKOs Belfort — Then No Contest
Belfort opened sharply: he landed punches and showed the creative striking that had made him one of the most exciting finishers in MMA history. For the first two minutes, the hostile Brazilian crowd saw their hero operating at recognisable quality against the younger Gastelum. Gastelum absorbed the early shots, found his timing, and landed a jab followed by a left hook that put Belfort down. Additional punches while standing over him. Belfort recovered. Gastelum sent him to the canvas a second time with strikes and rained hammer fists until referee Big John McCarthy stopped the fight at 3:52.
The post-event story overwrote the competitive one. Gastelum’s in-competition drug test came back positive for Carboxy-Tetrahydrocannabinol — a metabolite of marijuana — at a level above the WADA threshold of 180 ng/mL. On May 7, 2017, the win was officially overturned to a No Contest. Gastelum received a 90-day suspension retroactive to March 11 and a 20% purse fine. He was removed from his scheduled fight against Anderson Silva at UFC 212 in June. The Fortaleza No Contest was the second consecutive UFC event in 2017 — after the Houston FN104 triple positive — in which a marijuana positive drug test altered the official record.
Costa’s Debut, Barboza’s Flying Knee & The Card
Paulo Costa’s UFC debut TKO of Garreth McLellan in round one was the card’s most historically significant result. Costa — fighting under the nickname ‘Paulo Borrachinha’ at the time — was a 25-year-old Brazilian middleweight with a 10-0 professional record. His aggressive forward-pressure style, durable chin, and finishing power were all present in the Fortaleza debut. He stopped McLellan with ground-and-pound at 1:17 of round one. His subsequent UFC career produced 5 consecutive finishes and the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 253 in September 2020, when he stopped Yoel Romero by unanimous decision.
Edson Barboza’s second-round flying knee KO of Beneil Dariush was the card’s most visually spectacular finish. Barboza — known for his head kick and spinning kick highlight reel — timed Dariush moving forward and launched the full-extension flying knee that connected to Dariush’s face. The technique was the most athletically impressive individual finish on the card. Michel Prazeres’ north-south choke of Josh Burkman at 1:42 of round one was an unusual grappling finish: the north-south position allows a fighter who has passed guard and is lying perpendicular over the opponent to apply a shoulder-of-justice or, in Prazeres’ case, a choke.
Full Results
Main Card (Fox Sports 1)
Kelvin Gastelum def. Vitor Belfort — TKO (punches) — R1, 3:52 — Middleweight → OVERTURNED TO NO CONTEST (marijuana positive; above 180 ng/mL WADA threshold; 90-day suspension; 20% fine)
Mauricio Shogun Rua def. Gian Villante — TKO (head kick and punches) — R3, 0:59 — LHW (Shogun on 3-fight UFC win streak)
Edson Barboza def. Beneil Dariush — KO (flying knee) — R2, 3:35 — LW (PoN $50k; spectacular flying knee as Dariush moved forward)
Ray Borg def. Jussier Formiga — Unanimous Decision (29-28x3) — Flyweight
Bethe Correia vs. Marion Reneau — Majority Draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28) — Women’s Bantamweight
Alex Oliveira def. Tim Means — Submission (RNC) — R2, 2:38 — Welterweight
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1 / UFC Fight Pass)
Kevin Lee def. Francisco Trinaldo — Submission (RNC) — R2, 3:12 — LW (Lee building LW contendership)
Sergio Moraes def. Davi Ramos — UD — WW
Joe Soto def. Rani Yahya — UD — BW
Michel Prazeres def. Josh Burkman — Sub (north-south choke) — R1, 1:42 — WW (PoN $50k; unusual north-south choke finish)
Jeremy Kennedy def. Rony Jason — UD — FW
Paulo Costa def. Garreth McLellan — TKO (punches) — R1, 1:17 — MW (PoN $50k; COSTA’S UFC DEBUT; fighting as Paulo Borrachinha; future UFC MW champion)
Bonuses & Awards
🥇 Fight of the Night: NOT AWARDED (unusual — four PoN bonuses instead)
🥇 Performance of the Night: Kelvin Gastelum (revoked with NC) + Edson Barboza + Michel Prazeres + Paulo Costa — $50,000 each
Records & Milestones
• Main event overturned to No Contest — Gastelum’s marijuana positive above WADA’s 180 ng/mL threshold (more significant than FN104 positives, which were below USADA’s threshold).
• Paulo Costa’s UFC debut — first step toward the UFC MW Championship at UFC 253 in September 2020.
• No Fight of the Night awarded — the UFC instead distributed four Performance of the Night bonuses.
Legacy & Impact
Costa’s Fortaleza debut launched a UFC MW career that produced five consecutive finishes before his title fight: wins over Johny Hendricks, Uriah Hall, Yoel Romero, and others. He stopped Yoel Romero to claim the interim UFC MW title at UFC 241... wait, he won the actual belt at UFC 253 in September 2020, stopping Romero by unanimous decision. His debut performance’s forward-pressure, durability, and finishing quality were all present in recognisable form in the Fortaleza TKO. The Fortaleza card is therefore the birth event of a UFC MW championship career.
Barboza’s flying knee of Dariush was one of several Barboza highlight finishes that collectively defined him as UFC lightweight’s most technically diverse striking practitioner. His career included head kick KOs, spinning heel kick KOs, spinning back kick KOs, and flying knees across multiple UFC LW fights. The Fortaleza flying knee was the latest addition to that highlight reel. Kevin Lee’s submission win over Trinaldo advanced his LW contendership; he subsequently fought Tony Ferguson in the FN97 main event and became a legitimate UFC LW top contender.
FAQ
Why was Gastelum’s result overturned when FN104 positives were not?
The threshold difference: USADA suspends fighters for cannabis only when the in-competition sample contains more than 150 ng/mL of THC metabolites. The Texas fighters at FN104 were below this threshold (and received TDLR state-level sanctions instead). Gastelum’s Fortaleza sample came back at a level above WADA’s standard of 180 ng/mL — which is the threshold applied to UFC fighters under the USADA program. The higher metabolite concentration in Gastelum’s test meant it crossed the USADA-applicable threshold, triggering an official suspension, fine, and result overturn.
Who was Paulo Costa before his UFC debut?
Costa was a 25-year-old Brazilian middleweight who had compiled a 10-0 professional record on regional circuits before his UFC signing. His aggressive, high-output striking style and Brazilian jiu-jitsu background made him a physically imposing signing prospect. His nickname at the time — Paulo Borrachinha — was his professional fighting name before he standardised to Paulo Costa. His Fortaleza debut was his UFC introduction; his subsequent career produced five consecutive finishes before the Yoel Romero title fight, including wins over Johny Hendricks, Uriah Hall, and three others.
What was Edson Barboza’s flying knee technique?
The flying knee is executed by jumping from both feet and driving the lead knee forward into the opponent’s face or body. Barboza’s version against Dariush was timed as Dariush moved forward: the opponent’s forward momentum compound the impact of the incoming knee. Barboza’s athletic profile — a former Muay Thai practitioner from Brazil who had transitioned to MMA — made him capable of executing the technique with full extension and timing precision. The KO against Dariush joined his spinning heel kick KO of Terry Etim (UFC 142, 2012) as one of the most celebrated individual moments of his career.
Why was no Fight of the Night awarded?
The UFC’s bonus criteria require a bilateral competitive exchange that the judges determine earned the designation. On the Fortaleza card, the main event was ended by a drug test result and retitled a No Contest, eliminating it from bonus eligibility in its competitive form. The FotN designation went unawarded across the remaining card because no single bilateral fight generated the unanimous enthusiasm threshold. Instead, four individual PoN finishes — Gastelum, Barboza, Prazeres, Costa — each met the individual excellence bar for Performance of the Night. Gastelum’s PoN was subsequently revoked when his result was overturned.
What was Shogun Rua’s position in his career at this stage?
Rua was on a three-fight UFC win streak entering the Fortaleza card: wins over Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 (April 2016) and then Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 190 (August 2015) had preceded his Fortaleza TKO of Villante. The win streak represented a career revival for the 35-year-old Brazilian who had been UFC LHW champion from 2010 to 2011. His Fortaleza TKO of Villante in round three — via head kick and follow-up punches — was the most commercially satisfying result on the card for the Brazilian crowd after the main event’s drug test complications.
Why did the UFC schedule this card concurrent with a planned Las Vegas event?
The UFC routinely planned regional Fight Night cards weeks apart rather than concurrently. The Las Vegas event cancellation in January 2017 produced the numbering skip without a simultaneous scheduling conflict: by the time the cancellation was announced, Fortaleza and London were already booked as sequential events, not concurrent ones. March 11 (Fortaleza) and March 18 (London) were seven days apart. The numbering effect — where the cancellation bumped both downstream cards down by one number — was an administrative consequence rather than a scheduling overlap.