Alexandre Pantoja came out for the start of his fight with Alex Perez tonight at UFC 277 like a bat out of hell and that ended up working out well for him as he soon was able to hop onto his opponent’s back and sink in a fight-ending choke.
Round One:
Pantoja immediately wades forward and gets right into Perez’s face while throwing rapid-fire punches. Perez looking to fire back, but he’s struggling to match Pantoja’s intensity.
Pantoja goes for a trip to create a scramble situation and then gets to Perez’s back and hops up onto it. Now he’s looking for a standing rear-naked choke and even though it’s not quite under the chin he cranks hard on it, and it’s not long before Perez is forced to tap out at 1.31mins of the opening round.
The current No.4 contender in the flyweight division, Pantoja wanted to make a statement tonight and he certainly did just that with this high-octane performance.