Paul Craig’s debut at 185 pounds featured a little bit of everything, but most importantly, a stoppage win over a dangerous opponent.
Craig faced Andre Muniz in a middleweight main card bout at Saturday’s UFC London event at The O2 Arena. After a slow start to the bout, things picked up in the second round, and after he took a brutal headbutt from Muniz, Craig was able to regain momentum and eventually brutalize Muniz with elbows on the ground for a second-round TKO win.
Watch the vicious finish from “Bearjew” in the video below.
Paul Craig wins his middleweight debut by finishing Andre Muniz #UFCLondon
(via @espnmma) pic.twitter.com/PcpU06X7Rg
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) July 22, 2023
After an intense staredown during the fighters’ introductions, the action began with range kickboxing for the first two-plus minutes, where Muniz was able to win some exchanges. Craig landed an occasional body kick, but there was a lot of swinging and missing, or blocking throughout the first stanza. Eventually, Muniz caught a kick and scored a takedown with under a minute to go in the first round.
After a surprisingly underwhelming opening round, Craig charged towards Muniz and secured a takedown, which led to Muniz throwing up a triangle that seemed tight.
Craig was able to escape that danger, but Muniz ended up on top, where he landed about as blatant of a headbutt as you’ll ever see. The referee at least stopped the action to change position, but didn’t take away a point. But it didn’t seem to deter Craig, who got a takedown, full mount, and landed a barrage of elbows to get the stoppage.
It was Craig’s ninth career octagon victory during his 16-fight promotional run. Muniz has now been stopped in two straight after winning his first five in the UFC.