England's Lone'er Kavanagh catapulted himself into flyweight title contention on Saturday with a devastating Round 1 finish of Ramazan Temirov at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.
Coming into the fight as the No. 6 ranked flyweight in the world, Kavanagh, fighting out of London, put on a counter-attacking clinic securing the TKO win with a picture-perfect left uppercut with 30 seconds left on the clock in the first round.
The start of the contest saw Temirov come out of the gates fast, with his hard-hitting reputation preceding him. The Uzbek let a series of wild overhands, right hooks and haymakers fly early on, with some reaching their target.
But Kavanagh chose to fight behind his jab with his hands up and didn't let the few big shots that got through deter him.
That game plan provided the ultimate reward near the end of the first round as he dropped his shoulder in reaction to a Temirov left hook and let off a destructively quick left uppercut that rocked Temirov, and ultimately signalled the end of the fight.
From there, Kavanagh unleashed a flurry of punches at devastating speed to eventually put Temirov on the ground and with his back to the contest, before referee Mike Beltran stepped in to call it.
"Firstly, Abu Dhabi, thank you so much for having me, I love you guys, its an awesome country," Kavanagh said in the cage after the fight.
"I have an amazing team behind me. We work hard day in, day out to get these results. Trust in God's plan and we got it done."
Asked if it was his plan to capitalise on Temirov's fast, heavy output style, Kavanagh confirmed that it was his intention to stay on the outside as well as outlining that the flyweight belt is next on the agenda.
"Yeah exactly that, we've learned from previous mistakes, one of those is keeping my hands up, so I kept my hands up and made sure I can counter," he added.
"Obviously I'm here for that belt and respectfully anyone can get it, and yeah I'm here for that belt."
With the UFC announcing on Saturday that flyweight champion Joshua Van's next title defence will come against Manel Kape at UFC 336 in January, Kavanagh will fancy himself as being next in line.