MONTREAL -- In a knockout eerily reminiscent of his starching of Jon Fitch, Johny Hendricks crushed Martin Kampmann with a straight left hand, possibly earning the welterweight division's top contender slot in the process.

It took him all of 46 seconds to do it. Landing the back end of a right/left combo that sent Kampmann crashing backwards to the mat for the finish.

"It feels great," he said afterward. "Martin Kampmann is a tough dude. I trained with the guy before, I knew he had a chance to beat me. I had to prove I was the No. 1 contender. Please, please give me a shot at the belt."

Hendricks may indeed get the Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit winner sometime in 2013.

All week, Hendricks had threatened a knockout, saying he wanted to put his left hand on Kampmann "just one time." The two were former training partners at Xtreme Couture, and Hendricks said that early in his time there, Kampmann was one of many who would regularly beat him up.

This was a pretty fair measure of revenge for the two-time NCAA wrestling champ.

It marks his fifth straight win in the octagon (and third first-round KO in that span), as he's now 14-1.

Kampmann fell to 20-6.