Fast finishes were the flavour of the night on the UFC 317 preliminary card.
Gregory Rodrigues put Jack Hermansson to sleep with a massive left hand late in the opening round of their middleweight matchup in the featured prelim Saturday in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
The 33-year-old knockout artist from Brazil uncorked a left hook in the final minute of Round 1 that instantly put Hermansson out cold.
Hermansson fell to the canvas, smacked the back of his head on the mat and Rodrigues also landed an additional punch that was unnecessary. The 37-year-old, who represents both Norway and Sweden, remained unconscious for several minutes before coming to.
Rodrigues bounced back from a February technical knockout loss to Jared Cannonier with the statement win over Hermansson, who hadn’t fought since beating Joe Pyfer 16.5 months ago.
In earlier preliminary action, Terrance McKinney improved to 17-7 in mixed martial arts by earning his 16th career first-round stoppage victory thanks to a quick submission of Viacheslav Borshchev.
McKinney, 30 from Spokane, Wash., took the action to the ground immediately after Borshchev threw an early low kick and quickly attacked the neck. McKinney initially went for an anaconda choke, then switched to a mounted guillotine that forced a tap from Borshchev after several seconds of his 33-year-old Russian opponent struggling to escape.
All of McKinney’s wins have occurred within the opening three minutes of Round 1, save for a third-round submission back in 2018 in his fourth pro bout.
McKinney, who has now won four of his past five outings in the UFC, has never been to a decision as all seven of his losses have also been via stoppage.
Jose Miguel Delgado also wasted little time in handing Hyder Amil his first professional loss, knocking out his fellow featherweight in a mere 26 seconds.
Delgado and Amil wasted no time trading aggressive strikes, and Delgado timed a beautiful knee up the middle and followed up with some ground-and-pound before the referee halted the action.
The 27-year-old Delgado improved to 10-1 and is riding a seven-fight winning streak and maintained his 100 per cent finishing rate with the fifth KO/TKO win of his career. Amil, 35, is now 11-1.
Rising welterweight prospect Jacobe Smith was a massive betting favourite over veteran 170-pounder Niko Price, and Smith stayed unbeaten, getting a second-round submission win. Smith dominated the action throughout and sunk in a rear-naked choke late in Round 2.
Tracy Cortez got back in the win column following a five-round loss to Rose Namajunas last year with a three-round unanimous decision over Viviane Araujo. Cortez swept the scorecards after out-striking Araujo and getting one takedown in each round.
The opening bout on the prelims saw Brazilian heavyweight Jhonata Diniz welcome Alvin Hines to the UFC and hand the American his first pro loss. Diniz got his hand raised via unanimous decision after taking two of three rounds on all judges’ scorecards.
