Dustin Jacoby snaps two-fight skid, TKO’s Kennedy Nzechukwu in 88 seconds at UFC Nashville

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, August 5, 2023, for UFC Nashville, going down live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Headlining the event is a 140 lb catchweight bout between a pair of bantamweight contenders in no. 4 ranked Cory Sandhagen (16-4) and no. 7 ranked Rob Font (20-6).

Co-headlining the event was a strawweight match up between no. 5 ranked former divisional champion Jessica Andrade (24-11) and no. 10 ranked Tatiana Suarez (9-0).

Our feature fight of the evening came in the light-heavyweight division between former professional kickboxer Dustin Jacoby (19-7-1) and Nigerian finisher Kennedy Nzechukwu (12-4).

Jacoby went 8-0-1 in nine fights following his return to MMA from the kickboxing ring, seven of those fights happening in the UFC, before he came into this fight tonight on a two-fight skid.

Nzechukwu on the other hand came into tonight’s contest on a three-fight win streak.

These two men had three common opponents going into tonight’s affair:

Each of them had fought Ion Cutelaba, Jacoby battling to a draw with him in May of 2021, while Nzechukwu TKO’d him in November of 2022. They each fought Da-Un Jung, Jacoby KO’ing him in July of 2022 while Nzechukwu was KO’d by him half a year earlier in November of 2021.

And lastly, each man fought Karl Roberson, Jacoby having fought him in kickboxing back in 2016, and Nzechukwu having fought him in the UFC in July of last year; each man picked up third round TKO victories in those fights.

Continue reading to see how our 205 lb feature fight went down:

Official Result: Dustin Jacoby def. Kennedy Nzechukwu via TKO (punches) at 1:22 of round one

Nzechukwu controls the center of the octagon once the bout begins, getting to work with his straight punches. He lands a good left cross before eating a hard right hand that drops him.

Jacoby then follows up with some heavy hammerfists for the early TKO victory, marking the 12th knockout victory of his career, and also the 12th first round finish of his career. Some could say the stoppage was a tad early, but it was a good victory for the former kickboxer nonetheless.

DUSTIN JACOBY GETS IT DONE IN ONE ☝️ #UFCNashville

https://t.co/iulMRYbb9F

— COMBAT SPORTS TODAY (@CSTodayNews) August 6, 2023

Dustin Jacoby snaps his two-fight skid tonight at UFC Nashville, and he’s now gone 7-2-1 since returning to the UFC.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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