Fitting that a UFC card during a pandemic ends with two unstoppable zombies eating each other.
In the upset of the year, Justin “The Hilight” Gaethje stopped human zombie man Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson at UFC 249. After witnessing more damage than a fifteen car pile up, Ref Herb Dean called the fight at 1:22 left of round five.
“Shit happens man,” said Ferguson at the post fight.
Starting strong, Gaethje began working leg kicks and combos on Ferguson from round one. Ferguson took the damage in stride early on, showcasing his signature unorthodox movement to land solid blows in the early rounds. Though favoring Gaethje, the beginning was close. El Cucuy capped off his early offense with a massive upercut at the close of round two that looked to seal the deal going into round three.
But Gaethje starts the round unfazed by the strike, setting a manic pace of penetrating blows that quickly caused swelling under Ferguson’s left eye. The left hook became the lynch pin for Gaethje, and Ferguson’s chin seemed to slowly crack under it’s repeated landing.
The championship rounds revealed the shocking reality that Ferguson is in fact human somewhere deep down. Worry about Gaethje’s fast pace faded as the challenger kept the same intensity from round one. Ferguson’s legs and face began to swell under unanswered strikes, his offense failing to find a target in the same volume. Outside of a long shot Imanari roll in round four, no attempts to bring the fight to the ground came from the Eddie Bravo black belt.
After an absolute out pour from Gaethje late in round five, Dean stepped in to end the fight.
As Dana White went to award Gaethje his interim belt, the new champ decided to toss it aside immediately.
“I’ll wait for the real one,” said Gaethje. No word currently on how fast a match up can be scheduled between Gaethje and Khabib given the current lock down.
This leaves Gaethje at 22-2 and Ferguson at 25-4, also bringing an end to Ferguson’s 12-fight win streak.
