By:  | August 7, 2022 2:04 pm

Takashi Sato’s UFC career could well be coming to an end. He suffered a devastating KO defeat at the hands of Bryan Battle in Las Vegas this morning to extend his losing streak to three.

It was a knockout of the year contender but that will be scant consolation to Sato. There was an early warning for the Pancrase veteran who checked a head kick from Battle at the beginning of the round.

The American then went low and connected with a calf kick. It didn’t do any real damage but lulled Sato into a false sense of security and when he fired off a hard right head kick the Japanese fighter was totally unprepared.

Battle landed a few follow up shots as Sato lay unconscious on the ground but it was totally unnecessary as the head kick had instantly separated the Japanese star from his senses.

Nervous wait

With the win Battle improves to 8-1 and sends a message to the welterweight division having competed at 185lbs for his entire career. Meanwhile Sato drops to 16-6 and will probably be looking for a new home having already been stopped at UFC London this year.

The American did receive a $50,ooo USD performance bonus for the finish but he was left with a nervous wait because every single fight on the card finished inside the distance. Ten different fighters put their opponents away but only three of them were rewarded with bonus.

 

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Best of the rest

In the main event Jamahal Hill and Thiago Santos went to war. The fight was fairly even heading into the fourth round but the American was able to pick up the pace and finish his opponent with ground and pound.

UFC Vegas 59, Las Vegas, August 7th
Jamahal Hill def. Thiago Santos by TKO (punches and elbows) at 2:31 of R4
Geoff Neal def. Vicente Luque by KO (punches) at 2:01 of R3
Mohammed Usman def. Zac Pauga by KO (punches) at 0:36 of R2
Juliana Miller def. Brogan Walker-Sanchez by TKO (punches and elbows) at 3:57 of R3
Sergey Spivak def. Augusto Sakai by TKO (punches) at 3:42 of R2
Terrance McKinney def. Erick Gonzalez by Submission (Rear-naked choke) at 2:17 of R1
Michał Oleksiejczuk def. Sam Alvey by TKO (punches) at 1:56 of R1
Bryan Battle def. Takashi Sato by KO (head kick) at 0:44 of R1
Cory McKenna def. Miranda Granger by Submission (Von Flue choke) at 1:03 of R2
Mayra Bueno Silva def. Stephanie Egger by Submission (Armbar) at 1:17 of R1