Anthony Smith dominates Shogun Rua at UFC Hamburg
ANTHONY “Lionheart” Smith created a ripple in the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) after demolishing and knocking out legendary fighter Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the first round of their headlining fight at “UFC Fight Night 134” in Hamburg, Germany, early Monday morning (Manila time).
Took the fight in short notice as a replacement, American Smith, who is ranked outside of the top 15 in the division, shocked the crowd at the Barclaycard Arena with a dominating performance over former champion and eighth-ranked Rua, sending the latter to the loss with a barrage of punches in just 89 seconds.
Mr. Smith was on top things right from the opening bell. He sent Mr. Rua staggering after he connected with a solid right hand early and never relented after, following it up with a flurry of punches and elbows from which the
Brazilian legend could not recover from, forcing the referee to stop the fight at the 1:29 mark of the opening round.
It was a second straight quick finish for Mr. Smith (30-13), who ended his fight with Rashad Evans last month in just 53 seconds in the opening round.
Following his victory over Mr. Rua, Mr. Smith immediately made known who he wanted to face next, calling out number one contender Alexander Gustafsson.
“I think Alexander Gustafsson needs an opponent. Gustafsson, I’ll see you in LA!” Mr. Smith said in issuing the challenge at the post-match interview.
With the loss, Mr. Rua saw his three-fight winning streak halted while dropping to 25-11.
Other winners at UFC Fight Night 134 were light heavyweight Cory Anderson over Glover Teixeira by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27 and 30-27);
middleweight Abu Azaitar over Vitor Miranda by UD (30-27, 30-27 and 29-28); heavyweight Marcin Tybura over Stefan Struve by UD (30-27, 30-27 and 29-28); welterweight Danny Roberts over David Zawada by split decision (27-30, 29-28 and 29-28); and lightweight Nasrat Haqparast over Marc Diakiese by UD (30-27, 30-27 and 30-26).
Next for the UFC is “UFC on Fox 30” on July 29 (Manila time) in Calgary, Canada, which will feature the rematch between former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier as well as the featherweight battle of Jose Aldo and Jeremy Stephens.
In the Philippines, Cignal TV, the country’s foremost direct-to-home (DTH) company, is the home of the UFC after the two groups agreed to an extensive deal that will see the UFC beamed on various platforms.