UFC Fight Night 70: Machida vs. Romero | Event Profile, Full Results & Legacy
- Roe Jogan
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Table of Contents
Introduction
UFC Fight Night 70: Machida vs. Romero took place on Saturday, June 27, 2015 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida — broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 to 909,000 average viewers (1.02M peak). The card drew a sellout crowd of 5,604 and was the first UFC event in Hollywood, Florida since 2007. It was originally scheduled for São Paulo, Brazil but was moved to the United States six weeks before the event after a State Department visa database crisis blocked 12 international athletes from entering the country.
The venue change and visa cancellations reduced the card from its planned 12 fights to just nine. The main event — Yoel Romero vs. Lyoto Machida at middleweight — survived intact. After two cautious rounds of technical striking, Romero landed a knee-pick takedown in round three, immediately followed with short elbows from half guard, and knocked Machida unconscious in four strikes. It was a 2015 candidate for Knockout of the Year. Thiago Santos earned a second PoN with a 30-second head-kick KO of Steve Bossé. Lorenz Larkin’s TKO of Santiago Ponzinibbio earned Fight of the Night.
How a Visa Crisis Moved the Card from Brazil
The card was originally planned for the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, and was to include the lightweight and bantamweight finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4 — the first time a TUF Brazil finale would be held outside Brazil. On May 15, six weeks before the event, the UFC announced the venue change to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The stated reason: a technical failure in the Bureau of Consular Affairs division of the U.S. State Department’s Consular Consolidated Database had caused the visa application system to malfunction. Twelve athletes scheduled for the card could not obtain entry visas to the United States.
The TUF Brazil 4 finals were pushed to UFC 190 in August 2015. The original WW main event (Rick Story vs. Erick Silva) was scrapped when Silva couldn’t enter. Multiple prelim fights were rescheduled. The Machida/Romero MW main event survived because both fighters could travel. What had been a 12-fight Brazilian card became a nine-fight Florida card with a partially different lineup — one of the most disruptive pre-event logistical situations in UFC history up to that point.
Quick Stats
📅 Date: Saturday, June 27, 2015
📍 Venue: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida (originally planned for São Paulo, Brazil; moved due to US State Department visa system failure)
👥 Attendance: 5,604 (sellout)
📺 Broadcast: Fox Sports 1 — 909,000 avg. viewers (1.02M peak)
🏆 Main Event: Yoel Romero vs. Lyoto Machida — Middleweight (both fighters 37–38 years old; Romero 2000 Olympic silver medallist)
✅ Result: Romero def. Machida via KO (elbows) — R3, 1:38 (PoN $50k; Romero 6-fight UFC win streak at MW; knee-pick into elbow sequence; Machida knocked cold)
Main Event: Romero’s Elbow KO of Machida
Lyoto Machida and Yoel Romero are among the most technically unusual fighters in the sport’s history. Machida’s karate-based movement — the feinting, the hip-shifting, the precise counter-strikes from uncomfortable angles — had dismantled opponents for fifteen years. Romero, a former Olympic freestyle wrestling silver medallist, had added explosive striking to an already elite athletic base. At 37 and 38 respectively, both were in the late phases of elite-level careers but still presenting dangerous finishing threats. The first two rounds were precisely that: technically excellent, cautious, low-volume exchanges that showcased both men’s defensive intelligence.
Round three opened with Romero landing an uppercut that clearly shook Machida. The pair circled back into their distance game. Then Romero exploded: he faked a takedown, loaded again, and landed a knee-pick takedown from the clinch that brought Machida to the canvas. Once in Machida’s half guard, Romero delivered short elbows from close range. By the third elbow, Machida was bouncing in and out of consciousness. By the fourth and fifth, the fight was over. Referee Eduardo Herdy stopped the contest at 1:38 of round three. Machida was unconscious. The entire ground sequence had taken seconds. Romero, having waited patiently for two and a half rounds, had executed a flawless finish.
Romero’s post-fight interview was immediately memorable for an entirely different reason. Speaking through a translator, he congratulated God, his family, and his country — but explicitly declined to make a specific title callout, stating ‘whatever the UFC gives me, I will take.’ The response was characterised as humble by some observers and evasive by others. The refusal to explicitly call out a title shot from a fighter who had just beaten Lyoto Machida in 2.5 rounds generated significant discussion about Romero’s promotional instincts.
Santos’ Head-Kick KO & Larkin’s Co-Main
Thiago ‘Marreta’ Santos’ head-kick KO of Steve Bossé at approximately 30 seconds of round one generated one of 2015’s most replayed fight clips. Santos’ left high kick landed flush on Bossé’s skull with devastating impact — the sound compared by media observers to ‘a bat hitting a stack of wet blankets.’ Bossé collapsed immediately. It was Santos’ third consecutive first-round stoppage victory in the UFC and earned him Performance of the Night. The kick was considered a KOTY candidate and remains one of the most brutal clean strikes in UFC middleweight history.
Lorenz Larkin’s TKO of Santiago Ponzinibbio in round two earned Fight of the Night for both fighters. The co-main was a showcase of Larkin’s welterweight game — sharp, powerful striking from a comfortable range — against a young Argentine contender who had debuted with a win over Sean Strickland in Porto Alegre in February. Larkin’s performance confirmed his status as a dangerous WW actor; Ponzinibbio absorbed a developmental loss before his own striking-heavy contendership run that would eventually produce wins over Neil Magny and Mike Perry.
Full Results
Main Card (Fox Sports 1) — 9 fights (reduced from 12 due to visa issues)
Yoel Romero def. Lyoto Machida — KO (elbows) — R3, 1:38 — Middleweight (PoN $50k; knee-pick takedown into elbow sequence; Machida knocked cold; Romero 6-fight UFC MW winning streak)
Lorenz Larkin def. Santiago Ponzinibbio — TKO — R2, 3:07 — Welterweight (FotN $50k each; Larkin’s best UFC performance; Ponzinibbio taking developmental loss)
Antônio Carlos Jr. def. Eddie Gordon — Submission (RNC) — R3, 4:37 — Middleweight (Gordon’s 3rd straight UFC loss; TUF 19 winner)
Thiago ‘Marreta’ Santos def. Steve Bossé — KO (head kick) — R1, ~0:30 — Middleweight (PoN $50k; BRUTAL left high kick; 2015 KOTY candidate; 3rd consecutive R1 stoppage)
Hacran Dias def. Levan Makashvili — Split Decision — Featherweight
Alex Oliveira def. Joey Merritt — Unanimous Decision (30-27x3) — Welterweight
Leandro Silva def. Lewis Gonzalez — Unanimous Decision — Welterweight (Gonzalez fined 20% of purse for missing weight)
Tony Sims def. Steve Montgomery — KO — R1 — Welterweight
Sirwan Kakai def. Danny Martinez — Unanimous Decision — Bantamweight
Bonuses & Awards
🥇 Fight of the Night: Lorenz Larkin + Santiago Ponzinibbio — $50,000 each
🥇 Performance of the Night: Yoel Romero + Thiago Santos — $50,000 each
Records & Milestones
• Romero’s 6-fight UFC middleweight winning streak — the second longest active streak in the division behind champion Chris Weidman.
• Only 9 fights on the card — the first 9-fight UFC card of 2015, produced by visa issues blocking 12 athletes.
• Thiago Santos’ 3rd consecutive first-round UFC stoppage — his head-kick KO of Bossé was a 2015 Knockout of the Year candidate.
• First UFC event in Hollywood, Florida since 2007.
Legacy & Impact
Romero’s Hollywood elbow KO of Machida established him as the most dangerous middleweight not named Chris Weidman. His 6-fight win streak, the quality of the Machida finish, and his Olympic-level athleticism at 38 years old made him an undeniable title contender. He received a title shot against Weidman at UFC 205 in November 2016, losing by split decision. He subsequently fought Weidman again, Luke Rockhold, and Robert Whittaker — fights that cemented his legacy as one of the UFC’s most physically extraordinary middleweights. The Hollywood finish remains the defining visual of his 2015 UFC season.
Thiago Santos’ head-kick KO career continued to produce some of the most visually striking UFC finishes through 2019. His consecutive first-round stoppages in 2015 built the credibility that led to a UFC light heavyweight title fight against Jon Jones at UFC 239 in July 2019 — a close split decision that most observers considered a competitive five-round performance despite Santos tearing multiple ligaments in his knee. Santiago Ponzinibbio’s FotN loss to Larkin was a developmental step on the way to a 2017–2018 welterweight run that made him a top-five contender.
FAQ
What caused the State Department visa system failure?
The specific technical failure was in the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) — the central system used to process visa applications and maintain consular records. In mid-2015, the CCD experienced a technical problem that caused delays and failures in visa processing across multiple consulates. For the UFC, this meant that 12 athletes applying for US entry visas could not complete their applications through normal channels. The UFC was unable to obtain emergency processing or alternative pathways in time for the June 27 date. The event’s move from São Paulo to Hollywood — rather than fixing the visa issue for international athletes — simply changed the problem: most fighters on the Brazilian card were Brazilian nationals who needed US visas.
How did Romero’s elbow sequence work technically?
Romero’s finish was a combination of wrestling and short-space striking. From a clinch position, he loaded a knee pick — grabbing both of Machida’s legs from the outside and sweeping them as he drove forward. Once Machida was on the canvas in half guard, Romero was in a structurally dominant position: his weight pressed into Machida’s lower body, his upper body free to deliver strikes. Short elbows from this position travel very small distances but generate significant force through the driving weight of the body above. The first elbow stunned Machida; the subsequent ones compounded the neurological damage. The referee intervened correctly as Machida lost motor control.
Was the Machida loss the end of his title contendership?
The Hollywood loss was Machida’s second consecutive brutal stoppage — the previous being Luke Rockhold’s R1 submission at UFC 172. At 37 years old and with two successive violent losses, the evidence of physical decline was difficult to dispute. He had been a legitimate title contender at both LHW and MW through 2014; after Hollywood, the consensus view was that he was no longer in the contendership picture at the highest level. He continued fighting — going 2-4 in subsequent UFC bouts before his release in 2019 — but never challenged for a title again. The Romero elbow sequence is generally considered the end of his elite-level era.
What was Romero’s post-fight interview controversy about?
In his post-fight cage interview through an interpreter, Romero thanked God and his country but refused to make a specific title shot callout when the interviewer gave him the opportunity. His statement — ‘whatever the UFC gives me, I will take’ — generated contrasting reactions. Some observers interpreted it as admirable humility from a 38-year-old former Olympian with a more conservative self-promotional style. Others interpreted it as a strategic miscalculation: in the UFC, fighters who do not loudly claim their title shots frequently do not receive them. Romero’s promotion by the UFC was ultimately sufficient to earn him the Weidman title shot in November 2016, so the outcome was positive regardless.
How significant was Thiago Santos’ head-kick KO of Bossé?
Santos’ kick was one of the most consistently cited KO candidates across multiple media year-end awards lists for 2015. The visual — a clean left head kick with snap and placement that dropped a durable heavyweight-framed opponent immediately — was widely distributed. Bossé, a French-Canadian middleweight with genuine power, offered the kind of threatening opponent that validates a KO as meaningful rather than opportunistic. Santos’ three-fight first-round KO streak established him as a legitimate middleweight finisher. He eventually challenged for the UFC LHW title at UFC 239 in 2019, losing by split decision to Jon Jones in a fight widely regarded as competitive.
Where did Santiago Ponzinibbio’s career go after the Larkin loss?
Ponzinibbio recovered from the Hollywood stoppage to put together one of the UFC’s more impressive welterweight streaks from 2016 to 2018: wins over Danny Roberts, Luan Chagas, Alan Jouban, Mike Perry, Neil Magny, and Gunnar Nelson — six consecutive stoppage wins that propelled him to #6 in the WW rankings. The run was halted by a staph infection and subsequent health issues in 2019 before a career restart. His Hollywood FotN loss to Larkin was the last defeat before that six-fight streak. It proved a valuable developmental setback for one of the UFC’s most exciting WW strikers of the 2017–2018 period.
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