Alessio Sakara TKOs James Irvin

By Michael David Smith - Lead Blogger

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Alessio Sakara defeated James Irvin by first-round TKO Sunday night at UFC on Versus 1, landing a perfectly placed punch directly to Irvin's eye and forcing Irvin to stop fighting.

Sakara appeared to hurt Irvin with a right hand in the opening seconds, and he was landing clean, effective punches throughout, and he appeared to be on his way to winning the first round solidly. Midway through the first round, however, the fight ended on somewhat odd circumstances when Sakara landed a left hook directly to Irvin's right eye, and Irvin crumpled to the ground.

At first referee Josh Rosenthal appeared to have ruled that Sakara illegally poked Irvin's eye, but Rosenthal eventually got the call right, ruling that Irvin was hurt by a legal punch, and giving the first-round TKO victory to Sakara.

The official time was 3:01 of the first round.

Sakara's professional MMA record improves to 15-7, and he's now on a three-fight winning streak. Irvin, who was fighting for the first time since losing to Anderson Silva a year and a half ago, falls to 14-6.

Read More: ufc on versus 1, news, Alessio Sakara (MMA), James Irvin (MMA)

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