Gregory Rodrigues has a wealth of grappling experience on his resume but he’s also got some serious power in his hands.
The Brazilian showcased his knockout power on Saturday at UFC Austin after he unloaded a barrage of shots to finally put Julian Marquez away in a jaw-dropping performance on the main card. The stoppage came at 3:18 in the opening round after Rodrigues unleashed a straight right hand that saw Marquez just crumble to the mat as the referee called a stop to the fight.
“Tonight I just showed who I am,” Rodrigues said. “Nobody is going to stop me. I’m unstoppable. I want to show I’m a complete fighter. I can fight anyone.
“Julian is an amazing guy. I think the UFC did their job. I’m just going to wait for what they offer me and I’m going to take the challenge.”
Rodrigues was on point with his hands from the first exchange as he kept slipping through Marquez’s defense, consistently landing lefts and rights with power and accuracy. Time and again, Rodrigues just timed his punches and every time Marquez dared to fire back at him, the Brazilian made him pay.
When a hook slipped through to snap Marquez’s head back, Rodrigues went for the kill as he just started blasting away with huge shots, digging to the body and then unloading with an uppercut.
To his credit, Marquez refused to go away as he kept swinging wild punches just trying to keep Rodrigues off him but it was ultimately a futile effort.
Rodrigues continued to chase him across the octagon until he threw the punch down the middle that crashed into Marquez’s chin and sent him to the canvas for the last time.
Now 3-1 in the UFC, Rodrigues has been a fun addition to the middleweight division and he bounced back from a razor-close split decision loss in his last outing by keeping the judges sidelined with an impressive first-round knockout.