Anthony Smith had to eat some meaty leg kicks from Jimmy Crute in the first round of their UFC 261 main event opener tonight, but when it came time to land one of his own he made it count and effectively incapacitated his opponent’s limb, leading to a doctor’s stoppage inbetween rounds.
Round One:
Smith circles on the outside to start. Front kick to the body from Smith and a heavy body kick in return from Crute. Smith with a jab.
Leg kick for crute. Smith with a nice jab. He lands another. Low kick for Crute. Smith with a left hand. Both fighters land at the same time and Crute was staggered a bit by that.
Crute with a low kick again. Smith connects with the jab again. Very crisp double jab from Smith now. That weapon looks sharper than ever for him.
Crute continues to work the low leg with kicks. Crute just can’t get out of the way of these jabs though. Nice left hand and a leg kick for Crute.
Crute connects with a left hook and Smith blasts him too. The jab for Smith, the leg kick for Crute. Crute almost catches a kick.
Now Smith lands a leg kick and it buckles Crute’s leg badly and he stumbles awkwardly. Crute immediately goes for a takedown and gets it.
Crute battling hard to keep this fight grounded and no wonder as his leg might be badly hurt. They do go back to the feet but Crute immediately gets him back down. There’s definitely something not right with Crute’s leg though.
Again they go back to the feet and Crute is all heart as he drives forward into another takedown and then lands some heavy ground and pound to end the round.
Crute back to his feet to get to his corner and his foot is buckling all over the place. This fight might be stopped.
Before the second round starts the doctor gets Crute to walk towards him. His leg just isn’t working properly, with his foot in particular just folding on him, and unfortunately that means the fight is waved off – Anthony Smith wins by TKO due to a doctor’s stoppage at 5.00mins of the first round.
