Light heavyweight Glover Teixeira defeated Anthony Smith by TKO in the fifth round Wednesday night in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Jacksonville, Florida.
The stoppage came at 1 minute, 4 seconds. It was just the second fifth-round TKO in UFC light heavyweight history. The other featured Alexander Gustafsson stopping Teixeira in the last round of their 2017 bout.
Teixeira took command of Wednesday’s fight in Round 3, when he dropped Smith to the canvas with a huge left hook to the chin one minute in. He spent the rest of the round in dominant top position, smashing Smith with several hammer fists and opening a cut under his right eye and bloodying his right ear.
Teixeira swarmed Smith to open the fourth and landed a big uppercut that backed Smith to the cage. Teixeira took the fight to the ground with a minute left and did more damage from the top.
An exhausted Smith was quickly taken to the ground early in the final round, and Teixeira continued to wallop him with hard shots before the referee finally stepped in to wave the fight off.
Teixeira had actually been severely outlanded in significant strikes through two rounds, when Smith had a 73-44 edge. Teixeira owned the rest of the fight, outlanding Smith 94-13.
Teixeira (31-7) won his fourth fight in a row.
Smith (32-15), who came in as ESPN’s No. 5-ranked light heavyweight, has lost two of his past three fights. In his previous fight, he submitted Alexander Gustafsson by rear-naked choke in June.