UFC Vegas 71: Sergei Pavlovich mauls Curtis Blaydes for 6th straight 1st-round KO

It’s hard to determine the turning point in Sergei Pavlovich’s record-setting sixth first-round knockout Saturday of Curtis Blaydes in a critical heavyweight battle at Apex in Las Vegas in the main event of UFC Vegas 71.

Probably the best guess is that it was when the opening bell rang.

Pavlovich, who entered the fight ranked No. 3 at heavyweight, a spot above Blaydes, mauled Blaydes and stopped him with strikes at 3:08 of the first round.

Pavlovich nearly couldn’t miss Blaydes, landing 36 shots in all, nearly every one of them hard, thudding and inflicting damage.

“Big respect to Curtis Blaydes; he’s great,” said Pavlovich, who is 18-1. “But someone was saying he was going to easily take me down. What do you have to say now?”

Blaydes attempted one takedown, long after he’d already gotten into serious trouble, and Pavlovich easily stuffed it. Pavlovich was cracking Blaydes with his jab and rocking him from the start, making the finish all but inevitable.

The ending sequence began with Pavlovich connecting with a right uppercut. It wobbled Blaydes, but the jab that came right after it hurt him even more. Blaydes backed to the cage and Pavlovich unloaded a combination that finally dropped him. Referee Marc Goddard had seen enough and halted the carnage.

Pavlovich’s sixth consecutive first-round finish set a UFC heavyweight record in the modern era, which began when the unified rules went into effect on Nov. 28, 2000. It’s also the second-longest streak in UFC history behind Chuck Liddell, who had seven consecutive KOs from 2004 through 2006.

Pavlovich certainly made a strong argument for himself as a title challenger. Champion Jon Jones is expected to fight former champ Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden in New York in November, though that fight is not yet finalized.

Ciryl Gane, whom Jones destroyed in two minutes in March to win the title, is ranked first at heavyweight for some reason, but he won’t be getting a shot at the Jones-Miocic winner. Miocic is No. 2 and Pavlovich is No. 3 for the moment. That could change when the UFC rankings are updated Tuesday.

Given that it’s roughly seven months until Jones is expected to fight Miocic, Pavlovich could win up fighting No. 5 Tom Aspinall later this year if Aspinall’s knee injuries are healed in a No. 1 contender’s fight.

Either way, Pavlovich is going to have plenty of options moving forward as he pursues the championship.

“You don’t understand how hard I was working,” said Pavlovich, who was the backup for the Jones-Gane title fight in March. “There was so much work done.”

Clearly, it paid off and he’s just about at the top of the mountain now.