Jonathan Martinez picked up the biggest win of his career on Saturday after unleashing a series of vicious leg kicks to finish Cub Swanson in the UFC Vegas 62 co-main event.
From the very start of the fight, Martinez was just savage with his kicking game as he blasted Swanson to the body, the head and eventually the legs. After a couple of leg kicks had Swanson grimacing while switching stances, Martinez decided to go for the kill.
With Swanson still trying to maintain his balance, Martinez launched another kick that just took out the UFC Hall of Famer’s legs and sent him crashing to the canvas. Martinez followed up with a few more punches with Swanson just covering up until the referee stopped the fight.
The official end time came at 4:19 in the second round.
Afterwards, Martinez turned his attention to another UFC legend sitting cage side doing commentary for the broadcast.
“I’m real emotional right now,” Martinez said. “I just worked so hard for this and it’s starting to pay off. I’m trying to get better everyday.
“I know Dominick Cruz is in here, hopefully he will give me that chance.”
Prior to his call out, Martinez first had to get through Swanson as he executed his game plan with a series brutal body kicks that set up the rest of his strikes on the feet. Swanson ate the kicks and continued moving forward but he was cautious with his defense thanks to the speed and accuracy coming back from Martinez.
Just when it looked like Swanson was getting into a rhythm, Martinez caught him coming forward with a huge knee up the middle that dropped the UFC and WEC veteran to the canvas. Martinez unleashed a flurry of shots and then uncorked another nasty knee this time to the body that put Swanson down again.
With time running out, Swanson managed to make it to the end of the round but Martinez definitely smelled blood to seek out a finish.
At the start of the second round, Martinez pressed forward, closed the distance and started launching inside elbows that saw Swanson slump to the mat again.. Martinez was looking to end the fight but Swanson just refused to go away before working his way back to the feet again.
That’s when Martinez started throwing the kicks again but this time he saw an opening to attack Swanson’s legs. The first couple of kicks landed and Swanson was already in trouble, which told Martinez everything he needed to know.
Martinez then uncorked another kick that connected just on the inside of Swanson’s knee and that’s when he crumbled to the mat. The final couple of punches were just an exclamation point on a very strong performance overall by Martinez.
It remains to be seen if he’ll get his chosen opponent after calling for the fight with Cruz but Martinez should be in line for another marquee matchup after beating Swanson in his bantamweight debut.
