Kody Steele Floors Noah Gugnon in First Round at UFC 333

Kody Steele did not need long to turn UFC 333 into his kind of fight.

The 31-year-old lightweight knocked out Noah Gugnon at 3:54 of the first round Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. After a competitive opening stretch on the feet, Steele drove an overhand right into the side of Gugnon's head, dropped him near the fence and followed him to the canvas. The referee stepped in before the horn.

The UFC recorded the result as a knockout by strikes. It was Steele's second straight first-round finish and moved his UFC record to 2-1.

One right hand changes the fight

Steele entered the UFC with a serious grappling reputation, but he never treated Gugnon like a man he had to drag to the floor. Both lightweights found openings in the pocket. Gugnon had enough success to keep the exchanges honest, and that gave Steele the chance he wanted: a clean lane for the right hand as they traded near the fence.

Once Gugnon fell, Steele did not give him room to recover. The follow-up attack forced the stoppage with 66 seconds left in the round.

Two very different finishes

The win adds a knockout to the inverted heel-hook submission Steele scored against Dom Mar Fan in May. That is a useful pair of results for a lightweight trying to separate himself in a crowded division. His ground game already made him dangerous. Landing this kind of punch against an opponent willing to trade gives future matchups another problem to solve.

Steele improved to 9-1 overall, while Gugnon fell to 10-3. The bout was the second fight on the UFC 333 card, which is headlined by Alexander Volkanovski's featherweight title defense against unbeaten challenger Movsar Evloev.