UFC Fight Night 75, the promotion's latest foray into Japan, was largely a dud. Then Uriah Hall vs. Gegard Mousasi happened.
After an exciting, back-and-forth first round, Hall opened with a beautiful spin kick and, well, check it out for yourself:
Beautiful! #UFCJapan @UriahHallMMA http://pic.twitter.com/2EVta3AhyG
— #UFCJapan (@ufc) September 27, 2015
Hall drilled Mousasi with the kick and followed up with a devastating flying knee. Mousasi, remarkably, held on for a while, attempting to drag Hall down for a single-leg takedown, but the damage was done. Hall would continue throwing punches until the ref waved it off at 0:25 of Round 2.
In some ways, it was a shocking end to the bout. Mousasi was a colossal favorite, and Hall winning via TKO carried a hefty +1050 line, via Reed Kuhn. In other ways, it wasn't all that surprising.
The TUF17 alum has been a relatively steady presence in the division since the end of the show in large part due to his ferocious power. He won his way to the finals of the season with vicious knockouts of Adam Cella, Bubba McDaniel and Dylan Andrews, and while he wouldn't take the proverbial cake due to a split decision breaking in favor of Kelvin Gastelum, he has shown that he has retained that otherworldly striking potency since.
Uriah Hall is fighting tonight which means I need to post this...it will always be insane #UFCJapan https://t.co/3AvFTfn53g
— MMA GIFS (@mma_gifs_) September 26, 2015
The win leaves Hall in an unclear place in terms of his standing in the division. While a victory over Mousasi is nothing to shrug off, he has also lost ugly fights to ho-hum talents like Rafael Natal and John Howard.
While his long-term future is unclear, this is a huge accomplishment in the short term. It will be interesting to see what comes next for the newly minted Prime Time.
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