Gabriel Benitez stops Justin Jaynes with vicious knockout at UFC Vegas 16
Surging middleweight talents Jack Hermansson and Marvin Vettori headline UFC Vegas 16 tonight, Saturday, December 5, 2020.
After his first two opponents, Darren Till and Kevin Holland, withdrew from their bout with him, No. 4 ranked Jack Hermansson now faces No. 13 ranked Marvin Vettori in the five-round main event.
Co-headlining the event is a light-heavyweight bout between Ovince Saint Preux and Jamahal Hill, a very interesting match up between two very dangerous talents.
Our feature fight of the night came in the lightweight division between Gabriel Benitez and Justin Jaynes. Both talents were coming off defeats going into their fight tonight, they both desperately needed a win.
Jaynes just made his promotional debut earlier this year in June, and looked incredible in that first outing, TKO’ing Frank Camacho in just 41 seconds. He was however finished by Gavin Tucker in his last fight at 145 lbs, and he looks to pick up a victory in his first fight back at 155 lbs.
Benitez has been in the UFC since November of 2014, and while he initially went 5-2 in his initial run, he’s lost his last two-straight coming into tonight’s fight. He too is a former featherweight, but fought at lightweight for most of his career outside the UFC. He returned to the lightweight division this past May, only to be defeated by Omar Morales.
We knew one thing coming into tonight’s feature fight, it’s a battle between two men who want it!
Round 1
Benitez opens up with some very quick hands, and a quick body kick he snuck under the elbow of Jaynes.
Jaynes starts pressing forward to negate being picked apart, and the fight becomes more competitive with them each landing their own strikes.
Benitez is picking Jaynes apart well with his wide array of strikes, while Jaynes is using only his boxing. Those leg kicks and body kicks of Benitez were nasty, and Jaynes ate a lot of them. Benitez was clearly the more well rounded striker tonight, he was incredibly sharp with everything he threw, all of his strikes were as slick as they come.
Benitez landed a vicious knee to Jaynes’ sternum in an exchange, and that was it, he folded immediately.
Official Result: Gabriel Benitez def. Justin Jaynes via KO (knee to body) at 4:06 of round one
