Anthony Smith predicted he’d viciously KO Shogun Rua at UFC Hamburg, and boy did he follow through on his words.
Anthony Smith’s first round KO of Shogun Rua marks the second straight legend put away by the Lionheart. After knocking out Rashad Evans at UFC 225, he moved his attention to another former light heavyweight champion, Shogun Rua, in the UFC Hamburg main event, airing on FS1.
Shogun opened the fight by taking the center of the Octagon and throwing a leg kick. Shogun was able to walk Smith down, cornering him against the cage, when Smith landed a right hand to the temple. Before long, Shogun was on the wrong end of a devastating barrage of punches capped off by a brutal right elbow to the temple followed by a a 1-2 combination to an already unconscious Shogun Rua right as Marc Goddard rushed in to put a stop to the onslaught. Smith is now 2-0 in the light heavyweight division, and made it clear what he wants next:
“I respect Jimi more than anyone in this division,” Smith said. “But I think Alexander Gustafsson needs an opponent, so I’ll see you in L.A.”
Check out the action to the UFC Hamburg main event and the post-fight callout below:
Back-to-Back former LHW champs for @LionheartSmith ..#UFCHamburg pic.twitter.com/gSyjpJ6trk
— UFC (@ufc) July 22, 2018
"Gustafsson, I'll see you in LA!"
Who wants to see @LionheartSmith vs @AlexTheMauler at #UFC227?#UFCHamburg pic.twitter.com/EGDk6CsrdQ
— UFC (@ufc) July 22, 2018
Below are the full results to today’s UFC Hamburg card:
Main Card:
- Light heavyweight: Anthony Smith def. Mauricio Rua via R1 KO (punches, 1:29)
- Light heavyweight: Corey Anderson def. Glover Teixeira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Middleweight: Abu Azaitar def. Vitor Miranda via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Heavyweight: Marcin Tybura def. Stefan Struve via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Welterweight: Danny Roberts def. David Zawada via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
- Lightweight: Nasrat Haqparast def. Marc Diakiese via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Preliminary Card:
- Lightweight: Damir Hadzovic def. Nick Hein via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Welterweight: Bartosz Fabinski def. Emil Meek via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Featherweight: Nad Narimani def. Khalid Taha via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Light heavyweight: Aleksandar Rakic def. Justin Ledet via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-24, 30-24)
UFC Fight Pass Exclusive Prelims:
- Bantamweight: Manny Bermudez def. Davey Grant via R1 submission (triangle choke, 0:59)
- Light heavyweight: Darko Stosic def. Jeremy Kimball via R1 TKO (punches, 3:13)
- Bantamweight: Pingyuan Liu def. Damian Stasiak via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
