(Insider)
An American fighter scored a thunderous buzzer-beating knockout Saturday which left his opponent struggling to stay conscious even after the defeat.
Cody Garbrandt, a former UFC bantamweight champion, rebounded in style after three successive losses by scoring one of the best knockouts you’ll see this year, landing a fight-finishing right hook launched from the depths of hell.
Garbrandt landed eight of his 20 strikes in the first round, then out-landed his opponent Raphael Assuncao in the second, before ending the bout one second before the buzzer signified the round was over.
Assuncao would not get the chance to recover between rounds because the bout was waved off with him in no fit state to continue.
Garbrandt’s knockout punch was perfect. With his back to the fence he pivoted his weight onto his back-foot, took a half-squat, and, with that pistol of a right hand cocked by his side, rotated his waist and swung for Assuncao’s chin with maximum power.
Kaboom. Game over.
ON THE BUZZER! 🤯
Cody Garbrandt is back with a big knockout at #UFC250 🔥
The last second of the round! pic.twitter.com/T5ll6vHZVi
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) June 7, 2020
“It’s always great to be in the winner’s circle, especially with a knockout over a tough adversary like Raphael Assuncao,” Garbrandt said after his win at the UFC-owned Apex facility in Las Vegas on Saturday.
“To beat the timer like that, it’s a little icing on the cake. I haven’t won since 2016, I’ve been through every emotion, in life in career, ups and downs, what I held on to was fighting.”
Garbrandt was an unbeaten fighter when he wrested the UFC bantamweight championship from the waist of dominant division ruler Dominic Cruz in 2016, winning with stupendous striking.
But since that peak his form slipped and he lost twice to TJ Dillashaw by knockout, before getting finished by Pedro Munhoz.
Garbrandt is happy to be back. “I was blessed with a beautiful wife, a beautiful son and the dream in my heart to pursue this and pick myself up time and time again after getting knocked out and embarrassed to keep that dream alive in my heart,” he said.
