Tony Martin had a chip on his shoulder going into UFC 229, but that didn’t stop him from putting on an impressive performance — rather the opposite.
Martin, a lightweight turned welterweight, knocked out Ryan LaFlare in the third round of the first fight at UFC 229, headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov’s highly-anticipated title defense against Conor McGregor. Martin, best known for his grappling earlier in his MMA career, dominated LaFlare. He eventually finished the one-time UFC headliner with strikes in the final frame, notching the biggest win of his career and his first TKO as a professional.
“It worked out the way I wanted it to work out,” Martin told BloodyElbow.