Jean Silva rallies to submit Jose Miguel Delgado at Noche UFC

Featherweight Jean Silva made good on his second Noche UFC main event opportunity, defeating late-replacement Jose Miguel Delgado at UFC Fight Night at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on Saturday, but it wasn’t without adversity.

Delgado (12-3 MMA) stunned Brazil’s Silva in the opening round with a series of strikes before Silva maintained forward pressure in Rounds 2 and 3, finding an opening at 2:57 of the third frame to secure a one-arm rear-naked choke that left the Arizona crowd in stunned silence. Silva (18-3 MMA) didn’t throw a single strike in the first three minutes of the fight.

Silva is eyeing a shot at UFC featherweight gold soon, regardless of who the champion is next year. Silva didn’t offer a prediction for UFC 333’s main event, set for Saturday, Oct. 24, in Abu Dhabi, featuring Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski and Russia’s Movsar Evloev, with Volkanovski defending his title.

“This message is not for the division,” Silva said through a translator. “It’s not for anybody out there. This message is for the next champion. Whoever holds that belt, the next champion is right here. There’s a new champion in town.”

Silva was originally scheduled to fight Mexico’s Yair Rodriguez, a former interim champion, before Rodriguez withdrew because of an injury he disclosed on Instagram Aug. 20.

The co-main event saw former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno earn a split decision over UFC veteran Joseph Morales. Moreno (24-10-2 MMA) won 30-27 on the scorecards of Mike Bell and Eric Colon. Judge Andrew Topps scored it 29-28 for Morales in an entertaining, all-around fan-friendly bout with dynamic striking and grappling exchanges throughout the 15 minutes.

Moreno called for a quick turnaround in December for his next fight, expressing keen interest in fighting on the UFC’s end-of-year Las Vegas event, UFC 335, set for Saturday, Dec. 12, at T-Mobile Arena.

Morales (14-3 MMA) fell to 2-1 during his current UFC run and 3-3 dating to 2017. Meanwhile, Moreno has won three of his last five fights.

Featherweight Tommy McMillen nearly secured an arm-triangle choke attempt in Round 1, followed by more volume-based striking in Round 2 before nearly securing a TKO in the third round to win a unanimous decision over Morocco’s Marwan Rahiki (29-28, 29-28, 29-27) in a battle of previously unbeaten prospects. McMillen (12-0 MMA) and Rahiki (9-1 MMA) had an intense buildup, which included a shoving incident at the fighter hotel earlier in the week and another tense exchange at Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins.

“I knew I could just out-dog him at the end of the day,” McMillen said in his in-Octagon interview. “And that’s what I did.”

In a women’s flyweight title eliminator, a top-three matchup began when former UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso of Mexico used elusive striking to frustrate France’s Manon Fiorot. After Fiorot bounced back with a productive second round, Round 3 saw much of the same from Fiorot, who opened a cut over Grasso’s eyes, with visible damage to both. The judges favored Grasso’s boxing over Fiorot’s damage, awarding a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) and keeping Grasso in the title picture.

Valentina Shevchenko of Kyrgyzstan, who is 1-1-1 in head-to-head record against Grasso, was forced to vacate her flyweight title earlier this month. According to her head coach, Pavel Fedotov, Shevchenko may be out for a full year due to shoulder and back injuries, according to MMAFighting. To keep the division moving, UFC 332, set for Saturday, Oct. 3, in Salt Lake City, will feature a vacant title fight between Brazil’s Natalia Silva and China’s Wang Cong to crown a new champion.

Grasso’s victory strengthens her case to challenge the Silva-Wang winner while Shevchenko recovers. Meanwhile, Fiorot (13-3 MMA) lost to Shevchenko in May 2025 in her lone UFC title fight. Fiorot has dropped two of her last three fights, while Grasso (18-5-1 MMA) improved to 2-0 this year.

At heavyweight, four successful takedowns from Curtis Blaydes in the 15-minute contest were enough to outlast Waldo Cortes Acosta of the Dominican Republic and win a unanimous decision, to the audience’s dismay. Blaydes (20-6 MMA) swept the scorecards 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, handing Cortes Acosta (17-4 MMA) his first back-to-back losses in his MMA career.

Blaydes rebounded from his April loss to Josh Hokit at UFC 327 in Miami, where he lost a closely contested decision in a potential fight-of-the-year candidate. Blaydes has won two of his last three, improving his UFC mark to 15-6, 1 NC, since 2016.

Opening the main card, Mexican bantamweight David Martinez ignited the crowd with his 15th win in his last 16 outings, a unanimous decision over Hawaii’s Dan Ige. Martinez (15-1 MMA), who entered as a heavy betting favorite, took the cards 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, as Ige (19-12 MMA) has now lost three in a row.

Noche UFC 4 (also known as UFC Fight Night 288) was part of a busy Saturday in combat sports, with Ryan Garcia defending his WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn later at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. (Reuters)

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After losing her father on 9/11, a young Yankees fan built an unbreakable bond with Derek Jeter

Brielle Saracini came full circle at her cherished Yankee Stadium on Friday, throwing out the first ceremonial pitch 25 years after her father’s death on September 11, a tragedy that sparked an unlikely friendship with her childhood idol.

She was 10 when her father, United Airlines pilot Victor Saracini, died when his hijacked Flight 175 collided with the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

The tragedy set into motion a sequence of improbable events worthy of a Hollywood film, as Saracini formed an enduring bond with generational superstar Derek Jeter and met her husband, whose father died in the South Tower.

“You’re so happy and thankful for so many things that have come your way after 9/11,” she explained. “But it comes at a terrible price.”

Saracini and her now-husband Sean McGuire met two years after the attacks at a camp for children who lost a parent on September 11. They married in 2017 and he was standing by her side as she took the mound, wearing a jersey for the New York Mets talismanic catcher Mike Piazza.

It was perhaps the only circumstance in which the Yankees were likely to allow their bitter rival Mets blue-and-orange to be part of a pre-game ceremony. McGuire got to throw a pitch, as well.

“There are some things that are bigger than baseball. Everyone always knows that phrase, and this is definitely just one of them,” said Saracini, dressed in the Yankees pinstripes.

She was also accompanied by Jeter at center field and at the post-ceremony press conference, where he recalled meeting Saracini after the attacks.

“As an athlete, it was the first time that I said to myself, ‘Why am I even playing?'” Jeter told reporters.

“And then you had a chance to meet a lot of family members who lost loved ones, and Brielle is right at the top of the list… that’s when you realize that our job was to win. At least try to give people something to cheer for for a few hours a day.”

The two have kept in touch since, meeting up repeatedly as the Hall of Famer periodically called to check in.

“I actually had a battle with cancer,” Saracini told reporters. “I was able to get a personal voicemail (from Jeter) wishing me well, telling me to keep my head down and stay positive. And the amount of times I played that voicemail, you know, in the hospital over and over, just being like, ‘OK, I got someone in my corner’.”

The ceremonial pitch was not up to her standards – “I bounced it,” she would later tell reporters with a laugh. But the bittersweet moment was enough to make her father proud.

“My dad would probably open up by saying, ‘I taught you how to throw. How did you bounce it?’ And then he would give me a big hug and say, ‘You did great, kid,'” said Saracini.

“He would also then immediately turn to Derek and say, ‘Thank you for taking care of my girl’.”

‘LIFE COULD GO ON’

The ceremonial pitch was one of several commemorations at the Bronx stadium, where the Yankees took on the Mets in a Subway Series steeped with added meaning.

The American pastime became a symbol of American resilience in the weeks after the September 11 attack, with the first sporting event in the five boroughs played between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves in Queens.

The Mets won 3-2, courtesy of Piazza’s dramatic two-run homer in the eighth inning. Weeks later, then-president George W. Bush threw his ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium on October 30, Game 3 of the World Series.

“When the nation started playing baseball again, to me, it was like life could go on,” said Fred Houston, 75, a lifelong Yankees fan, who came to the Bronx dressed in NYPD apparel.

“It wasn’t going to change who we are and what we do.” (Reuters)

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