With a brutal knockout punch, Tony Ferguson knocked out Ramsey Nijem to win the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Ferguson landed a powerful left hook to Nijem’s chin to knock him down, then pounced and landed another right hand before referee Josh Rosenthal jumped in to stop the fight. The official time of the stoppage was 3 minutes, 54 seconds of the first round.
“Holy crap, man,” Ferguson said when he watched the replay of the knockout punch. “I don’t remember even throwing that. I know he got me a couple times but I weathered the storm.”
It was a great showing by Ferguson, who in addition to having excellent striking power also looked better than expected in his wrestling: Ferguson took Nijem down and got on top of him just seconds into the first round, and overall it was Ferguson’s fight from start to finish.
The 23-year-old Nijem is a talented fighter who has a good future ahead of him in the UFC, but Saturday night was Ferguson’s night, and he looks like a hot young prospect for the UFC.