UFC BJJ 8: Full Results, Analysis and Takeaways

We feared a step backward. Instead, UFC BJJ 8 confirmed the trend set last month: six submissions in eight matches, two belts defended with authority, and a main event wrapped up in under three minutes. After the excellent UFC BJJ 7, the platform has finally hit a steady stride on the entertainment front. And that’s great news.

Six Submissions, Two Titles Retained, and a Feverish Champion

On paper, the May 21 card at the Meta APEX was intriguing: a double title headliner, the grouped debuts of eight competitors, including the two Crelinsten brothers, and several matchups reshuffled at the last minute!

Full Results: UFC BJJ 8

Match-by-Match Recap and Analysis

Match 1: Azamat Bakytov vs Thomas David (Middleweight, 185 lbs)

Result: Majority Draw

The night starts like so many before it: no submission, and not much spark. Azamat Bakytov arrived with real hype, fueled in particular by his very active compatriots on social media. The Kazakh isn’t bad, far from it. But once in a dominant position, he doesn’t do much with it. It almost feels like he’s hunting points, IBJJF-style, when the Bowl only rewards action.

Thomas David, for his part, tries some interesting things, but without really chasing the submission either. Both men reach promising positions, K guard, leg entries, without ever finishing the job. Strangely, they seem gassed fairly early. Referee Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro even penalized both competitors with a point deduction for inactivity, a rare sight.

Verdict: majority draw. A logical result for a bout with no clear winner. But the editorial takeaway stays the same: opening a card with this kind of locked-up match doesn’t help the platform. The Bowl is built for action, and competitors need to have fully internalized that by now.

Match 2: Liam Crelinsten vs Max Livingston (Welterweight, 170 lbs)

Result: Crelinsten via submission (rear naked choke), R2, 2:44

A complete change of mood. Liam Crelinsten, the first of the two Canadian brothers to step into the Bowl, delivered a masterclass on his debut. Right from the engagement, you can tell he’s a level above: more relaxed, more confident, as if he already knew how the night would unfold.

Max Livingston, a former college wrestler, moves well but seems bothered by Crelinsten’s BJJ. More tellingly, he attacks while backing up, throwing guillotines with little conviction. The Canadian, meanwhile, strings together reversals and quickly builds a clear advantage.

The second round confirms the gap. Crelinsten settles into a dominant position with almost no effort. Livingston defends decently, but when you spend your time defending, you can no longer attack: you survive. During a guard pass, the Canadian locks up a body triangle with stunning speed, takes the back, secures a rear naked choke, and earns the tap. A clean finish and a clear message. We can’t wait to see him against tougher opposition.

Match 3: Keith Krikorian vs Landon Elmore (Featherweight, 145 lbs)

Result: Krikorian via unanimous decision

A rematch. Landon Elmore, 19, had beaten Keith Krikorian in another promotion back in 2025. This time, in the Bowl, the script flipped. After a brief stop for an accidental eye poke by Krikorian in the opening seconds, the bout delivered a real scrap.

Elmore is a young lion, dynamic and explosive, but also far too aggressive with his hands. At times, he looks like a beginner who thinks he’s boxing. That excitement is both his strength and his limitation. Krikorian, on the other hand, shows far greater maturity: very clean, disciplined, he refuses the bait and patiently imposes his pace.

The two men first struggle to bring the fight to the ground, then Krikorian finds the answer with two clean takedowns. Once on top, he clearly controls Elmore, passing his guard multiple times. The scenario actually echoes Elmore’s loss to Rerisson Gabriel at UFC BJJ 5: the prodigy unleashes wild energy in the first round, then runs out of gas and out of solutions once his guard is passed.

Krikorian dominates without finding the submission, which he’ll lament in his interview. But the unanimous decision is beyond dispute. Elmore’s physical maturity will come with time. He’s 19, and experience will do the rest.

Match 4: Jett Thompson vs Derek Rayfield (Welterweight, 170 lbs)

Result: Thompson via submission (Aoki lock), R3, 0:43

Derek Rayfield was replacing an injured Andy Varela on just 48 hours’ notice. The two men know each other well: this was their fifth meeting, and the head-to-head was perfectly even heading into the night.

The bout starts strong. Jett Thompson attempts a kind of flying triangle, misses it, and ends up on the ground right after a slick toss. Rayfield, calmer, tries some nice things of his own. The level is close, but Thompson’s exceptional flexibility gives his opponent trouble. The exchanges stay fairly even across two rounds.

One drawback, though: Rayfield repeatedly presses his hand into Thompson’s face. It’s an unpleasant tactic, different in kind from Elmore’s sloppy aggression, but it leaves the same mixed impression. Thompson keeps the edge regardless, notably on points.

Rayfield stays dangerous, attacking the legs constantly, but Thompson seems perfectly used to it and never looks truly threatened. Fatigue catches up with both men, perhaps a bit more on Rayfield’s side. In the third round, Thompson grabs a leg, locks up an Aoki lock, and earns the tap in 43 seconds. A complete and solid grappler. We’re glad it’s him coming away with the win.

Match 5: Ethan Crelinsten vs Danilo Moreira (Lightweight, 155 lbs)

Result: Crelinsten via submission (rear naked choke), R1, 2:11

The second Crelinsten brother takes the stage, and it went very fast. Ethan Crelinsten delivered an octopus-like performance: always well positioned, never in danger, he waited for the right moment to take Danilo Moreira’s back, then locked up an inescapable rear naked choke.

Two minutes and eleven seconds, that’s all it took. Moreira, a former lightweight title challenger, simply never got the chance to express himself. He must come away frustrated, but the skill gap was real. Crelinsten had promised a dominant win: he delivered, and in style.

Match 6: William Tackett vs Manuel Ribamar (Middleweight, 185 lbs)

Result: Tackett via submission (heel hook), R1, 4:48

William Tackett, older brother of welterweight champion Andrew Tackett, was making his return to the Bowl. Across from him, Manuel Ribamar, the Brazilian who won at UFC BJJ 6, had accepted this bout on just ten days’ notice.

The American takes over very quickly. Ribamar can’t express himself, overwhelmed throughout. Tackett is strikingly at ease: he clearly hunts a smooth path to the submission, “working” almost like a tough training session rather than a high-stakes match. You sense from the start that he’s going to win.

In the closing seconds of the first round, he locks up a heel hook and earns the tap. It’s a statement. A tasty detail: Tackett had already beaten Ribamar by heel hook in their first meeting. After the bout, he called for a title shot and said he was ready to turn around as soon as UFC BJJ 9. Given his performance, the idea is appealing.

Match 7: 🏆 Cassia Moura vs Sabrina Gondim, Women’s Bantamweight Title (135 lbs)

Result: Moura via submission (rear naked choke), R2, 1:43, retains the title

First title defense for Cassia Moura, crowned the first women’s bantamweight champion at UFC BJJ 6. Across from her, Sabrina Gondim, who was replacing Bianca Basilio and making her Bowl debut on less than two weeks’ notice.

And the challenger’s opening made an impression. A judo black belt, Gondim countered Moura’s arm drag with a spectacular throw that sent the champion headfirst to the mat. The timing, the power, the precision drew gasps from the entire Meta APEX. Enough to discourage just about anyone.

But Moura isn’t a champion by accident. She regains control of the situation after that early shock and dominates the rest of the first round. The judo throw could only work once, on the element of surprise, and the Brazilian is far more careful with her standing grips afterward.

In the second round, Moura returns to her signature weapon, the arm drag, chains into a takedown, and takes the back. This time, the clock is on her side. She locks up a tight rear naked choke and earns the tap. Overall control, punctuated by a single genuine scare. And above all, her first submission in the Bowl, after often faulting herself for stopping at the back take without finishing. A fine win.

A Flyweight Champion Eyeing the Double Title

An important detail: Moura is nominally a flyweight. She defends the bantamweight title, a division above her natural weight. In her interview, she restated her goal: to capture the 125 lbs belt and become a two-division UFC BJJ champion. At 20, and with the room for growth she has, the ambition is anything but unrealistic.

Match 8: 🏆 Mikey Musumeci vs Kevin Dantzler, Bantamweight Title (135 lbs)

Result: Musumeci via submission (heel hook), R1, 2:15, retains the title (3rd defense)

The main event pitted the champion against Kevin Dantzler, a CFFC BJJ grappler making his Bowl debut, boasting grappling wins over UFC fighters Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili. A credible challenger, then, but not the rival the division has been calling for for months.

On the mat, Musumeci didn’t waste time. He attacks the ankle right away, never lets go, clearly set on finishing fast. Dantzler defends well, escaping several heel hook attempts, forcing the champion to release and start over. Almost a shame, really: it would have been nice to see a bit more BJJ before the straight submission.

But Musumeci always finds the key in the end. He returns to the leg, turns a kneebar attempt into a heel hook, and earns the tap at 2:15 of the first round. Third title defense validated.

The most impressive part? The champion revealed after the bout that he was fighting with a staph infection and a high fever, after sleeping twenty hours the night before. He even wore long pants to cover the infection. Winning in that state commands respect. Still, one takeaway remains: Musumeci really needs to be matched with an opponent who won’t get caught so quickly. One name keeps coming up in the community, and with us too: Joao Miyao.

A Major Announcement: the UFC BJJ Opens

Alongside the event, UFC BJJ officially announced the launch of the UFC BJJ Opens. It’s arguably the most structural announcement since the platform was created, and it’s worth pausing on.

In practical terms, the Opens work like an amateur and semi-pro circuit. Young athletes sharpen their competition skills there, get used to the house rule set, then, in time, can hope to reach the major UFC BJJ events. That’s exactly the missing link: a scouting and development pipeline, no longer just a showcase for already-established grapplers.

For world BJJ, this is potentially huge. If the model takes hold, UFC BJJ will no longer simply attract the best: the platform will produce its own talent, from a young age, trained on a rule set that rewards action. We’ll be following this circuit’s evolution closely from one edition to the next, because it could permanently reshape the competitive jiu-jitsu ecosystem.

Editorial Takeaway: Confirmation After UFC BJJ 7

What Worked

The spectacle, again. Six submissions in eight matches. After the excellent UFC BJJ 7 and its five finishes, the platform confirms it has found the right formula. The contrast with editions 5 and 6, dragged down by decisions, is now clearly behind us. That’s the best news for the Bowl’s credibility.

The Crelinsten brothers. Two debuts, two submissions, two rear naked chokes. Liam and Ethan made their mark on the same night. After the Tackett brothers, UFC BJJ has a second set of siblings capable of carrying the show. That’s a valuable dynamic for the platform’s storytelling.

William Tackett. A statement. After his title-fight loss in December, the elder Tackett relaunches his career perfectly with a clean heel hook and a confident title call. His ease in this bout had something of a controlled training session about it.

Champions in adversity. Musumeci feverish and infected, Moura rattled early by a judo throw: both champions retained their belts by overcoming a real obstacle. Winning when things aren’t perfect is a champion’s signature, and the Bowl keeps stacking up examples of it.

What Was Missing

The opening bout. Bakytov vs David is exactly what the Bowl must stop producing: two competitors reaching good positions without ever chasing the finish, all the way to a double point deduction for inactivity. Opening a card this way remains a recurring misstep. The format doesn’t forgive passivity, and some competitors still need to fully take that on board.

A real rival for Musumeci. Third defense, third opponent debuting in the Bowl. Dantzler has merit, he said yes when others declined, but the match never looked like it could swing. The bantamweight division needs a name capable of standing up to the champion. Joao Miyao planted the seed during his face-off with Mikey at UFC BJJ 6. It’s now been three editions of waiting for this matchup. It’s about time.

The borderline behavior. Elmore’s sloppy hand aggression, Rayfield’s hand-to-the-face pressure: nothing dramatic, but these habits hurt the readability of the BJJ the platform wants to showcase. The Bowl gains by valuing pure technique and fluidity!

What’s Next? The Future of UFC BJJ

UFC BJJ 9, June 4, 2026: Mason Fowler defends his light heavyweight title against Devhonte Johnson, the bout teased since the callout at UFC BJJ 6. Also expected are Gilbert Burns’ UFC BJJ debut, along with the presence of Nick Rodriguez and Ffion Davies. A very promising card.

Miyao vs Musumeci: still not official. Musumeci floated a bout against Arman Tsarukyan for late August, while other names jockey for position. But the matchup the public has been calling for since UFC BJJ 6 remains that one. The bantamweight division needs this clash to move past the “yes, but” (yes, but against a legend?).

The UFC BJJ Opens: first date August 22 in Las Vegas. It’s the most important project for the platform’s future. A development circuit that, if it delivers on its promises, will feed the Bowl with talent for years to come.

The Bowl’s sibling acts: Tackett on one side, Crelinsten on the other. UFC BJJ has understood the narrative power of family stories. William Tackett is eyeing a title, the Crelinsten brothers are both calling for their shot. Plenty to fuel several cards to come.

Conclusion

UFC BJJ 8 wasn’t a flawless night, the opening bout was a reminder of that. But it confirmed the essentials: the platform now produces the spectacle it promised. Six submissions, two titles defended with authority, two new headline acts in the Crelinsten brothers, and an announcement, the UFC BJJ Opens, that could weigh heavily on the future of competitive jiu-jitsu.

Musumeci remains untouchable, even feverish. Moura writes the next chapter of her story, first submission in hand. BJJ is alive, and UFC BJJ keeps growing. It still lacks that rival capable of truly testing Musumeci, but for the rest, the trajectory is the right one.

See you on June 4 for UFC BJJ 9. The show goes on!

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