A fight of the year, a legend killer, and an incredible debutante: UFC produces a thrill-a-minute in San Diego
UFC returned with a bang Saturday as there was drama aplenty in a violent and epic night of fights.
The market-leading MMA firm took its show on the road and held a 13-bout card in San Diego.
Keep scrolling for photos and highlight clips from the show.
The UFC returned for a show Saturday, broadcasting a "Fight Night" event from San Diego. The 13-fight card on ESPN had a lot of thrills — from unmissable knockouts, and fighters rearranging each others' faces, to a fight of the year epic.
One of the first notable bouts was a 180-pound catchweight bout between Josh Quinlan and Jason Witt. It was Quinlan's first-ever UFC bout and he made sure it was one to remember as he iced Witt with a one-hitter-quitter — ouch!
Watch Quinlan's KO right here:
—ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 13, 2022
Later in the evening, Priscila Cachoeira's fists put Ariane Lipski away with ease as the women's bantamweight scored a stunning 65-second knockout.
Watch Cachoeira's win right here:
—ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 13, 2022
In the very night bout, undefeated light heavyweight Azamat Murzakanov destroyed Devin Clark with a horrific shot to the body.
Watch Murzakanov preserve his unbeaten record right here:
—ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 14, 2022
Then there was Yazmin Jauregui, a Mexican strawweight who produced a star-making performance against Iasmin Lucindo.
Jauregui earned a unanimous decision win over Lucindo with scores of 30-27, 29-28, and 29-28.
MMA fighter Casey O'Neill was one of many pro athletes blown away by her performance, as she called her "a beast" on Twitter.
At just 23 years old, she's clearly "going to be a bit star," O'Neill said on social media.
—Casey Oneill (@kingcaseymma) August 14, 2022
See some of the action here:
—ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 14, 2022
Then there was the slobberknocker. I mean, forget 'Fight of the Night,' as Nate Landwehr and David Onama's featherweight match was one of the fights of the year.
It was so good Joaquin Buckley tweeted to say he felt like he was "watching a fight movie scene."
—Joaquin New Mansa Buckley (@Newmansa94) August 14, 2022
Landwehr was more impressive statistically speaking as he landed an incredible 133 shots from 253 thrown in 15 minutes while succeeding with three of his four takedown attempts.
Watch them go to war right here:
—ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 14, 2022
Commentators called it "fight of the summer" — and with good reason, but it was a fight Landwehr won by a narrow margin with winning scores of 29-27 (twice) against a 28-28 tie.
Then came the main event between rising legend killer Chito Vera, against MMA icon Dominick Cruz. If you want to see how good Vera was, just look at this picture:
Vera finished Cruz in extraordinary fashion — with a fourth-round head kick.
Watch the knockout right here:
—Brock’s Load (@_MMAMindset) August 14, 2022
Victory advanced Vera's pro MMA record to 20 wins (eight knockouts, eight submissions, and four decisions) against seven losses, and will surely propel him higher than his No.5 rank in the bantamweight division.
UFC returns August 20 with an even bigger event as it hosts UFC 278 at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City in Utah.
Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards compete in a UFC welterweight title fight for the main event, and receive card support from athletes as varied as Paulo Costa, Jose Aldo, and Jared Gordon.
Read the original article on Insider