Alexandre Pantoja stops surging Matt Schnell with first-round KO at UFC Busan

Alexandre Pantoja brought a stop to Matt Schnell’s four-fight win streak with a series of clean punches in the first round of their pivotal flyweight bout on the undercard of UFC Busan in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Both fighters waded into the exchanges from the first bell, and both seemed to have some success as they planted their feet and swung for the fences. Although Schnell was able to catch Pantoja on a number of occasions, the experienced Brazilian continued to march forward and landed the more dramatic shots.

In the final minute of the opening round, Schnell stepped onto a number of hard shots from Pantoja and eventually dropped forward to the canvas. Pantoja landed two more shots as Schnell lay face down before the referee stepped in to stop the action.

The win saw Pantoja return to the win column following his loss to flyweight contender and fellow Brazilian Deiveson Figueiredo earlier this year.