Former ring girl Chaves survives split-decision scare to stay perfect in UFC debut

Jeisla Chaves remained unbeaten with a split decision victory over Yuneisy Duben at UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday, but the Brazilian flyweight admitted she was caught off guard when the judges’ scorecards were read at the Apex in Las Vegas.

Chaves, now 8-0, controlled much of the fight against Duben, yet judge Tony Weeks awarded the Venezuelan the opening round alongside the third — a round all three judges agreed Duben had won. Chaves was confident she had done enough to take the first two rounds and was visibly relieved when the decision went her way.

“Very happy with a win in my debut,” Chaves said in her post-fight interview. “It was a split decision. I gotta confess, I was really surprised. I was like, ‘Oh my God. We’re gonna have some emotion. Why not? It makes it more fun.’ Thankfully, the win came… I was confident. My corners came to me and said, ‘You won 2-1.’ I felt that we had done enough to win.”

Chaves’s path to the UFC Octagon is one of the more unusual in recent memory. She was first introduced to combat sports when a friend offered her a job as a ring girl at a muay thai event. She began training with the promoter of that same event — who remains her head coach today — and competed in muay thai for the first time a year later. She subsequently took up jiu-jitsu before transitioning fully to MMA.

The undefeated Brazilian punched her ticket to the UFC with another hard-fought split decision, this time on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, demonstrating a pattern of winning close fights under pressure.

Duben, meanwhile, arrived in the UFC in 2024 as an undefeated prospect who had finished all six of her previous opponents. Saturday’s loss to Chaves was her second consecutive defeat inside the Octagon, dropping her to 6-2 overall.