Marcio Barbosa Stops Ryan Kuse With First-Round TKO at UFC Sacramento
Marcio Barbosa stopped Ryan Kuse with a first-round TKO at 2:47 of Round 1 on the UFC Sacramento prelims. The Brazilian featherweight dropped Kuse with a left hook at Golden 1 Center and collected another early finish in his second UFC appearance.
The official result at UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs. Rodrigues was a TKO by punch. Referee Jason Herzog waved it off after taking a close look at Kuse, who had just been put on the canvas.
Barbosa improved to 19-2 overall and 2-0 in the UFC. Kuse, making his promotional debut, fell to 9-3.
The sequence matched the power that has defined Barbosa’s recent run. He stuffed multiple takedown attempts, kept the fight in the center of the cage, and waited for the opening on the feet.
Kuse kept shooting and missing. Barbosa connected with a left hook, then landed the shot that ended the night midway through the opening round.
Herzog did not need a long follow-up. Barbosa backed away after the knockdown, and the fight was over at 2:47.
The finish was the latest first-round stoppage in a streak that now sits at six. Barbosa had already ended his previous five fights in Round 1, including a Contender Series knockout of Damon Wilson and an 80-second debut win over Dennis Buzukja in Winnipeg.
That Buzukja knockout came on April 18 at UFC Fight Night: Burns vs. Malott. Barbosa is now 2-0 in the UFC, and both wins have ended in the first round.
Kuse was a late replacement. Danny Silva withdrew for a medical issue, and the UFC turned to the 32-year-old Miami veteran out of The Goat Shed.
Kuse trains alongside Buzukja, the same man Barbosa knocked out in April. He entered with six knockout wins of his own and had never been finished, with both prior losses coming by decision.
Saturday changed that. The man nicknamed “Third Street Savage” could not get Barbosa to the mat long enough to take the fight out of the pocket.
Barbosa, nicknamed “Ticotô,” is a pressure finisher more than a point fighter. Fifteen of his 18 wins before Sacramento had already come by KO or TKO, and this left hook made it 16 stoppages in 19 victories.
The live graphic and the highlight package pointed to the same thing the caption did. Heavy hands, another Round 1 ending, and a featherweight who is not lingering in the Octagon.
The win does not put him into the official 145-pound rankings. Alexander Volkanovski holds the UFC featherweight title, and Barbosa remains an unranked prospect with two fights on the roster.
It does force the division to keep watching him. Six straight first-round finishes, two of them in the UFC, is a sample size matchmakers use when they need a striker who can change a card in under three minutes.
Barbosa’s immediate standing is 2-0 in the UFC, a left-hook knockout in Sacramento, and a finishing streak that has not reached Round 2 in more than a year.