Road to UFC: China’s Zhang Mingyang scores scary KO to kick off Singapore fight week in style
- ‘Mountain Tiger’ makes a statement as tournaments for Asian MMA prospects get under way
- The 23-year-old flattens Tuco Tokkos in first round at Singapore Indoor Stadium ahead of Sunday’s UFC 275 pay-per-view
The Road to UFC kicked off with a bang in Singapore on Thursday afternoon, as Chinese light heavyweight Zhang Mingyang scored a brutal knockout win in the opening fight on the first of two cards.
With tournaments in four men’s weight divisions for 32 Asian MMA prospects, the opening rounds are taking place on June 9 and June 10 over four events at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The 23-year-old Zhang (16-6) flattened Tuco Tokkos in a non-tournament bout to start the first event of the series, which is being held in the Lion City ahead of Sunday morning’s UFC 275 card – the promotion’s first pay-per-view in Asia.
Bellator veteran Tokkos (7-3), training out of Sanford MMA in Florida, charged at the “Mountain Tiger” from the off, but got caught with a brutal right hand that sent him crashing to the canvas.
If he was not already out cold, Zhang’s five follow up strikes will have done the trick, and the referee quickly stepped in at 3:57 in the opening round.
A huge betting favourite at -675, Britain’s Tokkos was down for quite some time, with medical professionals tending to him in the Octagon.
“I definitely knew that,” Zhang said of the bookmakers’ odds coming in. “But it didn’t matter. I want to let the UFC know, in China we have [fighters in] bigger weight classes, like me.”