The three stars of 'UFC 186: Johnson vs. Horiguchi' in Montreal

Thomas Almeida

The UFC plans to stage 45 events in 2015, and during that time, hundreds of fighters will enter and exit the octagon.

While pre-fight hype is an enjoyable aspect of the sport, it’s ultimately the in-cage performances that speak most to fans. For the majority of fighters, the opportunity to present their skills to the world only comes along a few times per year.

A total of 24 fighters got the chance on Saturday as part of UFC 186 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. The organization’s first pay-per-view card in Canada since June 2014 saw a historic finish in the main event.

Now that UFC 186 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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Alexis Davis (17-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC) was under an immense amount of pressure to perform well after her devastating 16-second knockout loss to UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey at UFC 175 in July.

As if rebounding from that loss wasn’t challenge enough, Davis was pitted against Sarah Kaufman (17-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) for a third time in her career after going 0-2 in the first two meetings.

For the first six minutes of the trilogy bout, it looked like Davis’ career situation was headed from bad to worse. Kaufman landed better strikes on the feet and prevented Davis from finding her offensive rhythm.

That all changed when the fight hit the ground, though. Davis attacked with submissions off her back, and after a failed triangle choke, she transitioned to an armbar that forced her fellow Canadian fighter to tap out.

It’s difficult to assess where a third loss to Kaufman would have put Davis at this point in her career. Fortunately for her, she got a bit of redemption in a must-win fight.

Bantamweight prospect Thomas Almeida (18-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) kept his perfect record intact with a “Performance of the Night” knockout of Yves Jabouin (22-10 MMA, 5-5 UFC).

At just 23, Almeida is now 18-0 and has won every fight in a convincing manner. In his UFC debut in November, he went to a decision for the first time, but in his sophomore octagon appearance, he got back to his finishing ways when he stopped Jabouin with strikes in the first round.

The UFC bantamweight division is still thin and in need of rising stars to create more intrigue. Almeida is undoubtedly the future, and at his current rate of development, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him hold the 135-pound belt in the future.

Any fans who decided to leave the arena before the conclusion of UFC 186’s main event are going to regret that decision for years to come; they missed Demetrious Johnson (22-2-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) registering a feat that can be matched, but never beaten.

Nine fifth-round finishes have taken place in UFC history, but none came closer to the final bell than Johnson’s historic buzzer-beater armbar on Kyoji Horiguchi (15-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) at the 4:59 mark of Round 5.

Prior to the stoppage, there wasn’t anything particularly out of character about Johnson’s performance. He mixed up his offensive attacks as he typically does and built a big lead on the judges’ scorecards going into the final round.

Johnson could have easily coasted his way to a win, but he wanted to put an exclamation point on his dominant effort. He snatched Horiguchi’s arm and wrenched it until the Japanese fighter tapped out for a finish that will have a place in the UFC record books forever.

For more on UFC 186, check out the UFC Events section of the site.