Alonzo Menifield had no problem playing the spoiler at UFC Macau.
In Saturday’s co-main event at Galaxy Arena, Menifield knocked out China’s Zhang Mingyang inside of a round to silence his opponent’s home country crowd and score an upset victory.
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Watch the thrilling finish below.
Zhang was coming off of his first UFC setback, a knockout loss to Johnny Walker in the UFC Shanghai main event this past August. His reputation for first-round knockouts didn’t deter Menifield from engaging and the two threw heavy punches at each other for the majority of the bout, with Menifield eventually wearing Zhang down.
Menifield backed Zhang up, giving him little room to breathe as he threw hook after hook after hook until Zhang’s defenses completely crumbled. In the end, it was Menifield who outlasted Zhang, finishing the fight at the 4:15 mark of Round 1.
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Afterwards, Menifield was asked if the plan was to stand with the dangerous striker, and he didn’t hesitate with his response.
“Damn right that was the g*ddamn plan,” Menifield said. “I’m going to come in here and fight him. You think I’m going to run and wrestle? Hell no. I came here and I fought him and I got him.”
Menifield (18-7-1) improved his UFC record to 11-6-1 and has now won three of his past four fights. With his impressive performance against Zhang, “Atomic” bounced back from a knockout loss to Volkan Oezdemir this past November at UFC Qatar.
Zhang (19-8) has now lost consecutive high-profile fights in his native China after starting his UFC career 3-0.
