- Brian Kelleher and Hunter Azure were awarded $50,000 bonus checks each for producing the "Fight of the Night" at a behind-closed-doors event Wednesday.
- The two athletes were competing at the UFC Fight Night show in a behind-closed-doors venue in Jacksonville, because of a ban on mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
- While the majority of strikes landed belonged to Azure, it was Kelleher's final three punches which mattered most as he hit his opponent with a one-punch KO followed by two afters.
- Watch the highlight-reel finish right here.
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An American fighter nicknamed "Boom" scored a one-punch knockout then hit his defenseless opponent with two hammer-fists while he lay seemingly unconscious on the canvas.
The bout took place at a behind-closed-doors event in the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, the second of three UFC shows in eight days as the world's premier mixed martial arts firm returns to business following a two-month, coronavirus-enforced hiatus.
The UFC deemed Brian Kelleher and Hunter Azure's fight to be so good, both competitors were awarded separate $50,000 bonuses for producing the "Fight of the Night" — and it was only the second of 10 fights on the card.
It was Kelleher who got the win, finishing Azure with a single punch, a left hook to the jaw which flattened Azure.
But Kelleher was not done. The New York featherweight pounced on Azure and hit him with hammer-fists until the referee was able to intervene and wave the bout off.
Watch it here:
Or here if you're in a different region:
Kelleher said after the fight that he, "only got two good sparring sessions" to prepare for Azure, "but I'm a veteran in the sport so I felt comfortable in there.
"I just took my time, I started slow in the first round found my rhythm then I put him away."
While the finish is so conclusive, it does not tell the complete story of the fight as the vast majority of the landed punches were Azure's.
In the first round, he landed 36 of 73 strikes compared to Kelleher's 10 of 50, who favored a strategy more reliant on takedown attempts (four). In the second, Azure landed 26 of 59 strikes compared to Kelleher's 19 of 49.
Ultimately, it was Keller's final three punches that mattered most.
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