Joanderson Brito Stops Giga Chikadze in 117 Seconds at UFC 331
Joanderson Brito needed less than two minutes to knock out Giga Chikadze and open UFC 331.
The Brazilian featherweight finished the fight at 1:57 of Round 1 on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Chikadze missed a high kick and slipped. Brito followed him to the canvas, took top position, and buried him under hammerfists until the referee stepped in.
The official result was a knockout by punches. Brito then celebrated in the cage by peeling off his shorts.
That was the first fight of the night, and it never left the first round. One kick went high. One scramble went the other way. The veteran from Georgia was already hurt when the ground-and-pound started.
Brito entered 19-5-1 overall and 7-3 in the UFC. The stoppage moved him to 20-5-1 and made it three wins in a row.
He decisioned Isaac Thomson in December, then submitted Jordan Leavitt with a ninja choke on June 6. Saturday added another first-round finish to that stretch.
Chikadze came in 15-6 and 8-4 inside the Octagon. The loss dropped him to 15-7 and extended a skid that already included defeats to Arnold Allen, David Onama, and Kevin Vallejos.
The former GLORY kickboxer still showed the kicking range that once kept him ranked at 145 pounds. He landed a front kick to the body and a straight left before the high kick that cost him his balance.
Brito walked through that opening and forced the grappling exchange. Once the fight hit the mat, the finish was a matter of unanswered shots.
“Tubarao” has now ended six of his eight UFC wins before the final bell. Three of those are knockouts. Three are submissions.
He trains out of Chute Boxe João Emilio in Bauru and has said he is more interested in staying active than tracking every ranking update. A night like this still pushes him back toward that conversation.
Chikadze is 38. A first-round knockout on the early prelims is a difficult result to turn around quickly. Brito is 31 and has answered two decision losses to William Gomis and Pat Sabatini with three straight wins.
The rest of UFC 331 still had a flyweight title rematch between champion Joshua Van and former champion Alexandre Pantoja. Brito’s assignment was to start the card.
He did it in 117 seconds. The next booking has not been announced, but three finishes in nine months is the kind of run that usually puts a featherweight back in front of a ranked name.