This Saturday Hooker vs Parnasse · Accor Arena Paris France See this week's picks →
History · 2025 · UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Erceg · Christian Rodriguez vs Melquizael Costa
From the tape · 29 Mar 2025

Christian Rodriguez vs Melquizael Costa

UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Erceg · Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Result

Melquizael Costa beat Christian Rodriguez

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
FeatherweightMain cardReferee · Fernando Salas Navarro

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner ChristianRodriguezRoufusport · Milwaukee, Wisconsin
VSOn the tape
Blue corner MelquizaelCosta“Melk Cauthy”Chute Boxe Joao Emilio · Porto de Moz, Para
Featherweight3 rounds29 Mar 2025
The story going in
  • Carries 17 points more takedown defence than Costa.
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 2 of 3 UFC wins.
13-4
Record
26-8
−1 yr27
Age
28
5' 7"
Height
+3″5' 10"
71″
Reach
71″
Orthodox
Stance
Southpaw
+27
UFC bouts
5
1/520% of wins
Finishes
+47%2/367% of wins
Roufusport
Gym
Chute Boxe Joao Emilio
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
From
Porto de Moz, Para
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action1 sub attempt
Christian Rodriguez11 sig landed
HEAD27%3 of 5BODY73%8 of 9LEGS0%0 landed
Melquizael Costa22 sig landed
HEAD23%5 of 11BODY68%15 of 19LEGS9%2 of 2
11 of 14
Sig.
strikes
22 of 32
1 of 5
Take-
downs
0 of 1
2:07
Control
2:12
1
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 2Clinch 9Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 4Clinch 8Ground 10
Judges · this round · Rodriguez firstMiguel Jimenez9–10Chris Lee9–10Dave Tirelli9–10
Round 25:00 of action1 sub attempt
Christian Rodriguez19 sig landed
HEAD42%8 of 16BODY47%9 of 9LEGS11%2 of 2
Melquizael Costa26 sig landed
HEAD81%21 of 32BODY8%2 of 4LEGS12%3 of 4
19 of 27
Sig.
strikes
26 of 40
1 of 4
Take-
downs
1 of 1
1:42
Control
2:24
0
Sub
attempts
1
Distance 10Clinch 9Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 3Clinch 7Ground 16
Judges · this round · Rodriguez firstMiguel Jimenez9–10Chris Lee9–10Dave Tirelli9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Christian Rodriguez34 sig landed
HEAD74%25 of 48BODY18%6 of 6LEGS9%3 of 3
Melquizael Costa17 sig landed
HEAD76%13 of 29BODY12%2 of 2LEGS12%2 of 2
34 of 57
Sig.
strikes
17 of 33
4 of 6
Take-
downs
0 of 0
2:59
Control
0:17
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 17Clinch 8Ground 9
Where it
happened
Distance 12Clinch 2Ground 3
Judges · this round · Rodriguez firstMiguel Jimenez10–9Chris Lee10–9Dave Tirelli10–9

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Fernando Salas Navarro
Christian RodriguezMelquizael Costa
Official totals — Christian Rodriguez first
JudgeTotal
Miguel Jimenez28–29
Chris Lee2.0 avg spread · 44% wide28–29
Dave Tirelli2.2 avg spread · 56% wide28–29

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 12 scored, Christian Rodriguez first · unofficial

Brian Knapp Sherdog.com28–29
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com28–29
Combat Press.com28–29
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com28–29
Matthew Wells MMAJunkie.com28–29
Zane Simon The MMA Vivisection28–29
Steve Duncan mma.uno28–29
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com29–28
Tyler Treese Sherdog.com29–28
Jake Noecker Home of Fight29–28
Mathis Desjardins Cageside Press29–28
Ben Duffy Sherdog.com29–28

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Rodriguez · 54%29-28 Costa · 40%30-27 Rodriguez · 1%

89 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Christian Rodriguez

1.75takedowns / 15 min
1.75 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.53 / 15m
4.38 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
4.37 / 15m
40%
ACCURACY
35%
1.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.80 / 15m

Melquizael Costa

1.53takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.73 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Featherweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Christian Rodriguez↑ +4.7pp
open 59.4%close 64.1%
Melquizael Costa↓ −4.7pp
open 40.6%close 35.9%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Christian Rodriguez opened at 59.4% and closed at 64.1% (+4.7pp), with Melquizael Costa moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Christian Rodriguez-175-20959.4%64.1%+4.7pp
Melquizael Costa13016440.6%35.9%−4.7pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
← Every fighter on the record