Tyson Pedro made the most of his opportunity to fight in front of a home crowd in Australia while delivering a devastating first-round knockout to stop Anton Turkalj at UFC 293.
From the very first exchange, Pedro showed confidence in his hands with a stiff left-right combination that just kept finding a home on Turkalj’s chin. After rocking Turkalj with a pair of punches, Pedro followed that up with another left and right that put his opponent down on the canvas.
Referee Marc Goddard rushed in to stop the fight when the end officially coming at 2:12 in the opening round.
“I’ve been f****** imagining this every night,” Pedro said while celebrating his win. “My right hand’s just been on this camp. It’s just been a piston. I’m still a beginning at City Kickboxing.”
Incredible finish, even better celebration @Tyson_Pedro_ came out SWINGING in round one to get the KO! #UFC293 pic.twitter.com/7pYflb09b2
— UFC (@ufc) September 10, 2023
It was a great win for Pedro, especially after he started working with head coach Eugene Bareman and the team at City Kickboxing ahead of the fight.
Pedro showed confidence in his hands all night long as he set up his punches and just kept tagging Turkalj, who just had no answer for the long, rangy punches coming from the Australian.
After hurting Turkalj with the first combination, Pedro also showed patience without rushing for the finish but it didn’t take him long to find the shots that ended the fight a few moments later.
The win moves Pedro to 3-1 in his past four fights while Turkalj falls to 0-3 in the UFC since appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2022.