David Branch pulled off a stunning first round knockout against heavy-handed Brazilian Thiago Santos in a middleweight matchup on Saturday night in Atlantic City.
Despite being the higher ranked fighter, Branch actually walked into the bout as the underdog with Santos riding high on a four fight win streak with all four coming by way of knockout or TKO.
None of that seemed to matter much to Branch, who was happy to exchange strikes with Santos in the early going. Santos concentrated on tearing up Branch’s lead leg with kicks but that didn’t stop the former two-division World Series of Fighting champion from coming after him with his strong boxing game.
Once Branch finally had Santos backing up, he uncorked a beautifully timed overhand right that blasted his opponent on the jaw, twisting his head around like a cap coming off a bottle.
BOP!@DavidcBranchMMA lands the right hook, then finishes Marreta off on the canvas! Wow! #UFCAC pic.twitter.com/W5u4lMPBZg
— UFC (@ufc) April 22, 2018
Santos crashed to the canvas as Branch followed up with a barrage of hammer fists until referee Gary Copeland finally stepped into stop the fight.
The end came at 2:30 into the opening round.
Following a disappointing end to his last fight against former champion Luke Rockhold, Branch stormed back with his knockout over Santos as he moves to 2-1 in his latest campaign with the UFC.
Branch will now undoubtedly await another top 10 opponent when he looks to make his return to action later this year.
