UFC Fight Night 143: Cejudo wins in 32 seconds

The UFC held its first event on ESPN, with Fight Night 143 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night.

In the superfight headliner, bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw moved down a weight class to take on flyweight champ Henry Cejudo.

The astonishingly fast fight went against many expert expectations, with Cejudo knocking out Dillashaw in 32 seconds, to retain his belt.

With the UFC’s flyweight division’s future unknown, Cejudo’s surprise win may save the whole weight class.

The main card opened with the light heavyweight bout between Glover Teixeira and Karl Roberson.

Teixeira recovered from multiple elbows to the head at the start of the first round to get the submission win less than three and a half minutes into the fight.

Similarly, Paige VanZant recovered in the second round to get an arm bar win against Rachael Ostovich in an impressive grappling display of a fight.

The wrestling-dominated rematch bout between Joseph Benavidez and Dustin Ortiz again ended in a decision win for Benavidez.

Gregor Gillespie extended his record to 13-0 after manhandling Yancy Medeiros and getting a TKO win in the final second of the second round.

The penultimate fight of the night, saw former NFL player, Greg Hardy, take on fellow heavyweight Allen Crowder.

Hardy, who had previously finished all three of his professional fights in less than a minute, was taken into unfamiliar territory by the more experienced Crowder.

It was late in the second round when Hardy delivered an illegal knee to the head of a kneeling Crowder, forcing ref Dan Miragliotta to stop the fight and disqualify Hardy.

Earlier in the night, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone made fans and lightweights take notice with his dismantling of Alexander Hernandez on the preliminary card.

Touted as a possible opponent for Conor McGregor in recent months, Cowboy certainly didn’t hurt his chances of facing off against ‘The Notorious’.

Following the bout, McGregor tweeted, “For a fight like that Donald, I’ll fight you.”

If you would like to view more ESPN+ UFC content such as:

Replays of the fight night (including the pre- and post-show). For anyone that missed Hardy’s DQ, Cejudo’s lightning quick TKO on Dillashaw, or the Cowboy’s win and boisterous call out of McGregor, watch it on ESPN+. Replays include Spanish content.
All of the pre-fight night content, including the weigh-ins (big moment for Dillashaw) and the press conference (watch Hernandez talk a ton of trash to Cerrone… which makes his TKO soo much sweeter)
Watch “Destined: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw”, an exclusive ESPN+ documentary series following the fighters in the lead-up to the event

Watch past fights and the best of UFC, such as Barao vs. Dillashaw, Johnson vs. Cejudo, or even McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov (because why not)
Watch “Ariel & the Bad Guy”, the original series exclusive to ESPN+ featuring MMA’s #1 journalist. 1/18’s episode features commentary on the weigh-ins and Ariel’s next episode is scheduled for 1/23. You know he’s going to have a lot to say about last night!