UFC 270 video: Matt Frevola lands 4 knockdowns before finishing Genaro Valdez, fighters react to controversial stoppage

The bar for Fight of the Night at UFC 270 has been set after Matt Frevola went to war with Genaro Valdez before finally earning a first-round finish.

The back-and-forth battle started from the opening exchange but Frevola finally started to take over after blasted Valdez with a shot that put him down on the canvas. As it turns out, Frevola had to land a total of four recorded knockdowns before he was finally able to take Valdez’s back and hammer away with ground and pound to earn the TKO stoppage.

The end came at 3:15 in a wild first round.

“I knew he was a really great, tough Mexican fighter,” Frevola said about Valdez afterwards. “I’m learning and I’m growing in this octagon.

“I got it done tonight. I just knew he was so tough. I kept pushing for the finish and I got it.”

It was a frantic pace from the start with Valdez marching forward and throwing bombs as he sought a knockout of his own and after tagging Frevola early, it appeared he might have that opportunity. Valdez even landed a well timed knee up the middle that seemingly put Frevola on wobbly legs, although he recovered quickly to begin countering with his own flurry of punches.

Frevola then began firing back with some nasty combinations of his own and the aggressiveness from Valdez also left him open for those punches to start landing in succession. The furious exchanges led to Valdez hitting the ground four times in just about two minutes but referee Mike Beltran continued to let the fight move forward as the Contender Series veteran kept trying to comeback.

It wasn’t until Frevola flattened Valdez on the canvas and started raining punches down on him that the fight was finally stopped.

Several fighters reacted to the stoppage, especially after Valdez suffered so many knockdowns throughout the opening round.

Regardless of the reaction, Frevola will certainly celebrate his win as he gets back on track following back-to-back losses in his previous two appearances inside the octagon.