Alex Volkanovski continued his climb up the 145 ranks tonight at UFC 232, by taking out longtime contender, Chad Mendes in thrilling fashion.
Both featherweights came out with a lot of movement and a steady stream of strikes. As the round neared its end, Volkanovski appeared to be landing more often, however, Mendes briefly took the rising fighter down.
Not long into round two, Mendes cracked Volkanovski with a big punch and then sent the latter to the deck. Volkanovski, however, got back to his feet and started landing some hard punches of his own, before Mendes countered with a takedown. Volkanovski got back to his feet again, and proceeded to pepper Mendes with jabs, but found himself on the mat via another takedown.
Once more, Volkanovski got back to his feet, and moments later he put Mendes down with a booming right to the temple and that was that.
Here are the results so far for UFC 232, which is going down in Inglewood, California.
Alexander Volkanovski def. Chad Mendes via TKO (punches) R2, 4:14
Walt Harris def. Andrei Arlovski via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
Megan Anderson def. Cat Zingano via TKO (strikes) R1, 1:01
Petr Yan def. Douglas Silva de Andrade via TKO (corner stoppage) R2, 5:00
Ryan Hall def. B.J. Penn via submission (heel hook) R1, 2:46
Nathaniel Wood def. Andre Ewell via submission (rear-naked choke) R3, 4:12
Uriah Hall def. Bevon Lewis via knockout (punch) R3, 1:32
Curtis Millender def. Siyar Bahadurzada via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Montel Jackson def. Brian Kelleher via submission (D’Arce choke) R1, 1:40