Mateus Mendonca was determined to finish Nate Maness with a leg submission at UFC Fight Night 229, and it resulted in him getting knocked out.
Maness (15-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) showed off the power behind his ground-and-pound when he countered the repeated grappling attacks of Mendonca (10-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) with vicious punches to the face until the referee stepped in at the 4:40 mark of Round 1.
Check out a replay of the finish below (via X):
That ground and pound was vicious from Nate Maness 😳 #UFCVegas80 pic.twitter.com/AUgpNDGtYX
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 7, 2023
It was an important win for Maness, who came into the fight with back-to-back losses against Umar Numragomedov and Tagir Ulanbekov. He put that skid behind him, and afterward made a callout for his next fight.
“I’ve been stacked up with some killers here lately and I’ve put too much pressure on myself,” Maness said in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier. “UFC posted this guy yesterday saying he’s a fighter to watch. I’m a fighter to watch, and I’m going to call my shot: CJ Vergara.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 229.
