Ryan Spann looks sharp and violently KO’s Dominick Reyes at UFC 281

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, November 12, 2022, for perhaps the biggest event they’ve hosted this year in UFC 281, as the sport of MMA turns 29 years young tonight.

UFC 281 is to be headlined and co-headlined by world title fights, as UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (23-1) aims to defend his throne for a sixth time against fellow former kickboxing champion Alex Pereira (6-1), someone he went 0-2 against in kickboxing.

UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza (19-6) also aims to make the first defense of her newly claimed title against former champion Weili Zhang (22-3).

Co-headlining the preliminary card tonight was a light-heavyweight encounter between former title challenger Dominick Reyes (12-3) and no. 12 ranked Ryan Spann (20-7).

Reyes, following defeat to Jon Jones in a fight many believed he won, had since gone 0-2, losing both fights via knockout to former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and current champion Jiri Prochazka.

Spann on the other hand had gone 6-2 thus far into his tenure with the UFC, going 2-2 over his last four appearances. Continue reading to see how our preliminary co-main event went down:

Official Result: Ryan Spann def. Dominick Reyes via KO (punch) at 1:20 of round one

Reyes opens up the bout with a front snap kick just before Spann lands a hard right hand that drops him. Reyes is hurt, but he’s throwing back and lands a couple punches of his own.

Spann continues to land that right hand, it can’t miss, and he lands a viciously powerful and equally as fast jab that KO’s Reyes on the spot. A couple follow up punches were landed, though unnecessary, and Spann is now on a two-fight win streak.

Dominick Reyes on the other hand has lost his last four straight after opening up his career with a record of 12-0, this being his third straight defeat via knockout. For someone most thought beat Jon Jones, this has certainly been a significant fall from grace for Reyes.

RYAN SPANN JUST SLEPT DOM REYES #UFC281 pic.twitter.com/wbNNFw0QrH

— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) November 13, 2022

This was the fourth violent KO finish we’ve seen tonight, and the fifth finish we’ve seen in eight fights thus far.

What an event!

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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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