You can tell it’s a crowded UFC pay-per-view when just five takeaways doesn’t seem like enough room.

It doesn’t give us an opportunity to discuss all the details of UFC 310, such as the razor-sharp and now very grown-up version of “The Korean Superboy” Doo Ho Choi. It also leaves us no room to ponder the career of Anthony Smith, which might have ended on Saturday in Las Vegas, or the quality of Vicente Luque’s quick victory over Themba Gorimbo, which you all must have forgotten.

Still, difficult decisions had to be made, and here are the key takeaways we took away from the final UFC pay-per-view of 2024.

1. Import as many new challengers as possible, because Alexandre Pantoja will need new victims.

The UFC flyweight champion had no problems whatsoever with debutant Kai Asakura. And it’s not because Asakura didn’t bring it with him. After his years as RIZIN champion in Japan, he looked big, fast and sharp and wasn’t at all intimidated by the bright lights of the UFC.

But Pantoja was significantly better. He is currently one of the most dominant champions in the UFC. If this continues, the big problem will be finding new enemies to feed to him.

2. Shavkat Rakhmonov is still undefeated, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t suffer a major scare against Ian Machado Garry.

His unanimous decision win was much closer than expected. Not only was Garry the first to see the scorecards against Rakhmonov, he also came within a whisker of defeating him with a rear-naked choke.

Rakhmonov deserved the decision, but his status as the division’s boogeyman was compromised. Welterweight champion Belal Muhammad needs to think better of his chances now that he sat cageside for this look at his next challenger. On the other hand, Garry finally has a defeat, but it shouldn’t affect our reputation too much. That was a good performance under the circumstances and proves that he is also a potential contender – just not quite yet.

3. Alexander Volkov was robbed in front of everyone, and even Ciryl Gane knew about it.

We’ve seen a few questionable scorecards at this event, but this was the worst.

Volkov overtook and defeated Gane and still went home with a loss. The fact that Gane initially turned around and fled the cage after the results were read out tells us that he wasn’t exactly feeling triumphant after those three rounds. It’s a shame because Volkov has really improved in so many areas since their last fight. Here he deserved a win to secure the score, but the judges got in his way.

4. Why did Kron Gracie accept this fight?

Does he really want a UFC career or does he just feel like he needs to get in the cage every now and then? When he envisioned himself winning this, did he really think that the path to victory began with taking cover every time Bryce Mitchell got close? Was there a Plan B at some point, and if so, why did it never emerge?

These and other questions are swirling in the air after his third-round knockout defeat. And I’m so short on answers that I can’t even be bothered to ask how a man who hates seat belts and basic power tool safety as much as Mitchell managed to live so long.

5. Aljamain Sterling said he would show us why he didn’t deserve to compete in the prelims.

He succeeded, just not with the end result he was hoping for.

Sterling and Movsar Evloev combined to deliver what was probably the best fight of the night, not to mention one of the most compelling and entertaining grappling duels in recent memory. In the end, Evloev had the decision, but it could have gone the other way. I know Sterling was upset that this wasn’t on the pay-per-view portion of the card, but hopefully keeping it on the more widespread prelims gave more people a chance to see it. This was the kind of fight you’d want to show to someone who thinks the ground game isn’t fun to watch. Then you can stand there and say, like Sterling, I told you so.