Fight fans at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas had plenty to cheer about, including a pair of unconventional highlight-reel knockouts, on Saturday night during a finish-filled UFC Fight Night preliminary card.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate returned to the win column with a third-round submission of Julia Avila in the featured preliminary bout. It had been more than two years since Tate’s last win. The 37-year-old is now 2-2 since returning from a four-year retirement.
Tate’s win was the fifth consecutive stoppage win of Saturday’s prelims after Veronica Hardy opened the night with a split decision win over Jamey-Lyn Horth.
Welterweight Jared Gooden and light-heavyweight Rodolfo Bellato earned comeback wins over Wellington Turman and Ihor Potieria, respectively, after both being rocked by their opponents. Gooden won with a submission and Turman via strikes.
The show-stealers of the early portion of the card, however, were back-to-back slam knockouts.
First up it was lightweight Drakkar Klose, who was defending an armbar from Joe Solecki when he slammed Solecki’s temple into the canvas.
In the very next fight, middleweight Cody Brundage countered a Zachary Reese triangle choke attempt by slamming his opponent to the ground and ending the fight seconds later.
Slam knockouts are rather rare in the UFC, so to have two occur one after the other like that is not something fight fans will soon forget.