Tanner Boser VS Jesse Ronson

In heavyweight action, Tanner Boser (now 19-6-1) took home his second straight knockout victory after landing a left hook to the eye of Raphael Pessoa (now 10-2) that dropped him to his knees where Boser finished him off against the cage.

Less than one month ago, Boser left Las Vegas with another impressive knockout victory over Philipe Lins, before making the quick turnaround to take on Pessoa.

Boser said it’s been a crazy past 30 days for him, but it was all worth it with the results he saw, which included his first $50k performance-of-the-night bonus.

Also stepping in on short notice, Jesse Ronson (now 22-10) locked down the first-round submission victory in his UFC return, forcing Nicolas Dalby (now 18-4-1) to tap out due to a rear-naked choke that was set up by a hard combination landed on the feet that sent Dalby to the mat.

In his first stint with the UFC, Ronson went 0-3, with all the defeats coming by split decision. Now, returning to UFC over six years later, Ronson said earning his first UFC win means everything to him.

“It’s unbelievable. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life, to get that UFC win ever since I turned pro,” said Ronson in his post-fight press conference.

“It eluded me in 2013-14, but it’s better than a birthday and better than Christmas.”

Boser, who weighed in at 235 pounds without cutting weight, was noticeably smaller than Pessoa inside the cage, who had to cut weight to reach the 265-pound heavyweight limit.

But despite the weight differential, Boser said he will not be considering a drop to light heavyweight, and said the game-plan he had for the bigger Pessoa worked perfectly.