Yoel Romero picked up the biggest win of his career Saturday as he knocked out Lyoto Machida at a UFC Fight Night event in Hollywood, Fla.
After a first round in which the two men gauged distance and found their timing, Romero began landing strong punches in the second round and in the third he took control.
Romero (10-1) won a silver medal in freestyle wrestling at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and used those grappling skills to take Machida down in the third round. Once he was on top of Machida, Romero landed a series of elbows that left his middleweight opponent unconscious. The 38-year-old Cuban is now 6-0 in the UFC with five of those wins coming by KO/TKO.
Machida (22-7) was looking to bounce back from a one-sided submission loss he suffered to Luke Rockhold in April. The former UFC light-heavyweight champion has now lost three of his last four fights. This was his first KO loss since he was finished by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 113 in Montreal in 2010.
Also on the main card, former minor-league hockey enforcer Steve Bosse was violently knocked out in his UFC debut. He was on the receiving end of a head kick from Brazilian Thiago Santos just 29 seconds into their middleweight bout.
(Warning: This is a violent KO)
Bosse first competed in MMA in 2007 and holds wins over former UFC fighters Houston Alexander, Marvin Eastman and Wes Sims, but this was his first MMA fight in two years.
In 142 games split between the Verdun Dragons and St. Jean Chiefs in the Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey from 2003-08, Bosse registered five points and 998 penalty minutes.
There are typically 10-13 fights on your average UFC card, but there were only nine fights at this event because in the weeks leading up to the event several fighters had visa issues and their bouts were removed from the card. One of those fighters was Erick Silva who was scheduled to meet Rick Story in the co-main event. Those two welterweight powerhouses will instead fight one another when the UFC makes its debut in Saskatoon on Aug. 23.
Here are the complete results from UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Romero.
MAIN CARD
— Yoel Romero def. Lyoto Machida by KO
— Lorenz Larkin def. Santiago Ponzinibbio by TKO
— Antonio Carlos Junior def. Eddie Gordon by submission
— Thiago Santos def. Steve Bosse by KO
— Hacran Dias def. Levan Makashvili by split decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Alex Oliveira def. Joe Merritt by unanimous decision
— Leandro Silva def. Lewis Gonzalez by unanimous decision
— Tony Sims def. Steve Montgomery by KO
— Sirwan Kakai def. Danny Martinez by unanimous decision
