Mairon Santos messed up at the scale, but left no room for error on fight night at UFC 323 on Saturday night.
The Ultimate Fighter 32 tournament champion ended things early in the third round of his fight with Muhammad Naimov, catching him with a fast right hand that dropped Naimov instantly. Santos followed up with ground-and-pound on his badly hurt opponent to officially stop the fight.
Watch the explosive finish below.
It was a much-needed burst of offense for Santos, who couldn’t be confident he was up on the scorecards after two competitive rounds (though all three judges’ cards were later revealed to be in Santos’ favor heading into the final frame). Up on points or not, Santos took matters into his own hands with a blistering strike that ended the contest 21 seconds into Round 3.
Santos (17-1) missed weight on Friday, coming in at 1.5 pounds over the featherweight limit. In his post-fight interview, he apologized for the miss, but said it won’t happen again and that he plans to stay in the 145-pound division. He improves to 4-0 in the UFC.
Naimov (13-4) sees a two-fight win streak snapped.
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