MarQuel Mederos Stops Mason Jones in Round 2 at UFC Sacramento
MarQuel Mederos stopped Mason Jones by TKO at 2:07 of Round 2 on the UFC Sacramento main card. The Glendale lightweight dropped Jones with a right hand and finished him with punches at Golden 1 Center.
The official result at UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs. Rodrigues was a TKO by strikes. Mederos improved to 12-1-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the UFC.
Jones fell to 18-3 with one no-contest. The Welshman, nicknamed “The Dragon,” had not been finished in a professional fight before Saturday.
That is why the caption calling it the biggest win of Mederos’ career holds up. Jones entered on a seven-fight winning streak, with Fight of the Night hardware from a March war with Axel Sola in London, and he was the betting favorite.
Mederos had been trying to make a louder statement since a messy majority draw with Chris Padilla at UFC 327. He earned his contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2023, went 3-0, then got stuck in that draw.
Padilla later submitted Nasrat Haqparast on this same Sacramento prelims. Mederos answered a few hours later by becoming the first man to stop Jones.
The first round was a sprint. UFC.com said both men had their moments through five nonstop minutes before Jones started to take the second.
The shift lasted only until the right hand. Jones went on unsteady legs along the fence, and Mederos swarmed until the referee stepped in at 2:07.
The striking totals were close, which is why the finish still registered as a shock. Jones actually landed more total strikes, 84 of 158, and more significant strikes, 77 of 151.
Mederos was the more accurate man, going 82 of 115 overall and 73 of 106 in significant strikes. He also scored the fight’s only knockdown.
Jones completed the only takedown, going 1-for-1. Mederos was 0-for-4 on takedowns and never needed the mat to end it.
Jones had trained extensively at Team Alpha Male, so Sacramento was a familiar room. The hometown-adjacent setting did not save him once Mederos got the right hand home.
Justin Gaethje holds the UFC lightweight title. Neither man entered this bout as a ranked title threat, and a second-round knockout does not hand Mederos a number overnight.
It does change the lightweight conversation around both of them. Jones’ seven-fight run is over, and Mederos now has a signature finish over a veteran who always found a way to hear the final horn.
The MarQuel Mederos knockout was a standing stoppage, not a grappling result. MMA Fighting described it as an out-slug, and the graphic backs that up: victory by punches, one knockdown, almost no control time.
No next opponent has been announced. Mederos leaves Sacramento 5-0-1 in the UFC, with the first finish of Mason Jones and the kind of win a Contender Series prospect has to have to stay on main cards.