The lightweight main event between Justin Gaethje and Edson Barboza earlier tonight (Sat., Mar. 30, 2019) at UFC on ESPN 2 from inside Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was all it was cracked up to be as Gatehje knocked out Barboza in the very first round. While Barboza landed some good leg kicks and timely counters, Gaethje dominated this fight from the opening bell. He landed the better kicks in the beginning moments before hurting Barboza with a big combination. Barboza survived the early damage before “Highlight” caught him clean with a vicious right hand along the cage. Barboza hit the canvas, his lights turned off, and that was all she wrote. Check out the knockout blow above courtesy of UFC/ESPN. With this performance, Gaethje locks down his second-straight knockout win at 155 pounds after taking out James Vick in the first round last August. Gaethje once again delivered on his promise and now looks to be ready to make a run at the lightweight title. UFC loves fighters who can produce instant fireworks no matter who they face so “Highlight” could get a nice push moving forward. For complete UFC Philadelphia results and coverage click here.<doc-sep>For the most part, UFC Philadelphia was not a very good card. Even some of the fights that had finishes were tedious to sit through. It’s not like there were a slew of awful bouts per se, but I know what I was watching wasn’t particularly captivating high-level MMA. ...But you know who is really good and extremely violent and never tedious to watch? Justin Gaethje. He walloped Edson Barboza in two-and-a-half minutes. Gaethje was poised, sharp, and Barboza for the most part was overwhelmed. Barboza is a tough guy to render unconscious, and Gaethje did just that with a giant right hand that had the Brazilian out cold. That’s the second straight brutal KO win for Gaethje in which he took very little damage. Needless to say, this is one way to avoid getting hit 150+ times per fight. Barboza got some licks in but Gaethje for the most part imposed his game and Edson’s historic tendency to look ineffective fighting off the backfoot was exploited once again. I thought Barboza would find a way around this... he didn’t come close. Justin Gaethje is one of the most entertaining fighters combat sports has ever seen. I do not care if he wins a UFC title. Just enjoy what he brings to the table, because you always get your money’s worth and then some. And you know what? In this muddled lightweight title picture, he may only be a win or two from a title bout. Main Card Don’t listen to my picks ever again because I went zero for the entire main card. Edson Barboza needs a very long break from this sport. Three of his last four bouts have been the Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kevin Lee thrashings, and then this KO defeat. That’s a lot of damage to incur to the head over a fifteen month span. Who saw David Branch getting guillotined in just 49 seconds by Jack Hermansson? MAN! That’s not some every day feat to tap Branch out like that — Rousimar Palhares is the only other fighter to submit Branch — and the Swedish-Norwegian middleweight has just notched himself the biggest win of his UFC career. Josh Emmett vs. Michael Johnson went from boring and uninspiring to violent in the blink of an eye. Emmett has a powerful right hand, Johnson shrugged of Emmett as a “knockout artist,” and that take did not age well. Out like a light. Johnson was winning that fight (at least to me) prior to getting KTFO in the final round, so props to Emmett to returning from that face-breaking KO loss to Jeremy Stephens with a highlight-reel finish of his own. Michelle Waterson might have cemented herself a title shot with a comprehensive shutout decision win over former strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. She outstruck Karolina and nearly submitted her in round two. I know Tatiana Suarez vs. Nina Ansaroff is a de facto #1 contender bout, but Waterson is a WME fighter and on a genuinely impressive three-fight win streak so don’t be shocked if she’s fighting the Rose Namajunas-Jessica Andrade winner next. Paul Craig did it again! In what has to be one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen, the Scottish light heavyweight pulled off a triangle choke with 40 seconds left in what would’ve been a loss vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu. It was a sloppy, foul-filled, unwatchable mess, and then Nzechukwu finally got caught in a submission that he couldn’t escape. Craig has twice won via Hail Mary submission with seconds left, with the other one with one-second remaining vs. Magomed Ankalaev. Anyway, I never ever want to see this bout again. Featherweight prospect Sodiq Yusuff was on his way to losing a decision against Sheymon Moraes, but he unleashed a powerful and precise right hand knockdown in the final minute of the third-round to swing things in his favor. It was a compelling, closely fought battle and props to Yusuff for digging deep for that fight-changing strike. Preliminary Card<doc-sep>
Justin Gaethje and Edson Barboza go right at it in the first round as they each exchange massive blows in the main event of UFC Fight Night. (0:20) One of the most anticipated fights of 2019 lived up to the hype, as Justin Gaethje knocked out Edson Barboza in the first round of their main event bout at UFC Fight Night in Philadelphia on Saturday. Gaethje (20-2), with Barboza up against the fence, landed a hard right hook that immediately sent his opponent to the mat. Referee Keith Peterson immediately jumped in to signal the bout was over at 2 minutes, 30 seconds. The win was Gaethje's second in a row following a first-round KO of James Vick in August. Barboza (20-8) lost his third fight in his past four matchups. "This is the toughest sport on Earth," Gaethje said. "I just love it. It's one at a time for me. On to the next one. There are five or six guys in front of me I want. "I wouldn't recommend this sport to my worst enemy. I was raised to do this. I will do this 'til the wheels fall off." Gaethje and Barboza, two of the most prolific leg kickers in the sport, began the bout doing just that. Each started the fight attacking the lead leg of the other with heavy strikes. play 1:33 Gaethje describes what he has overcome in his career Justin Gaethje describes what he has overcome in his career after his big knockout win over Edson Barboza at UFC Fight Night. One minute into the bout, Gaethje landed a right hand that wobbled Barboza, but he recovered. The two then started swinging for the fences, before Gaethje connected with the knockout blow. Gaethje cemented his legacy as one of MMA's most exciting fighters. It was his eighth first-round finish and his 17th career knockout. Gaethje, with five UFC fights under his belt, lands the most strikes per minute (8.5) in promotion history.