Flyweight hopeful Tatsuro Taira remains undefeated and on course for superstardom, despite an unceremonious win at UFC Vegas 93 last night.

After one of the dullest Fight Night cards of 2024, the main event of UFC Vegas 93 ended abruptly as flyweight prospect Tatsuro Taira put his opponent’s body under so much pressure that it buckled beneath him; now, the undefeated phenom is eyeing a title shot.

Tatsuro Taira earns unceremonious finish at UFC Vegas 93

Despite former champion Michael Bisping claiming that Taira’s performance was one of the ‘cleanest’ that he’d ever seen in the octagon, that was far from reality; with all three judges scoring the opening round for Alex Perez.

Yet it was in the second round where the young flyweight took over as the veteran’s body gave out; with Taira hanging off Perez from a standing body lock and driving too much downward force for his knee to hold – popping the joint as the two fell to the canvas.

A decidedly disappointing end to a contest that was only just starting to get going, the unceremonious finish still gives Taira his fifth TKO win of his career and allows the undefeated Japanese star to continue his ascent up the flyweight rankings.

Fighters react to Tatsuro Taira’s round two stoppage win at UFC Vegas 93

Much of the post-fight reaction from the MMA community is one of two separate parts; that the injury suffered by Perez was an unfortunate end to the contest, but that Taira would have likely secured a victory regardless of the knee joint being popped.

Soon-to-be UFC welterweight title challenger Belal Muhammad simply stated, “That kids good,” while bantamweight star Marlon Vera noted that it “was a great fight while it lasted” and that Taira has “a great future ahead.”

Dominick Cruz, who was posting from cageside, shared “That back take to body triangle takedown is highly technical by Taira -what a win for the undefeated fighter.”

Yet it was former champion Aljamain Sterling who arguably had the most intriguing reaction to the stoppage as he dissected the finish with the help of his comments section.

“Well that’s a c**** ending to the main event,” he shared, before adding how “Taira on his back would’ve been tough regardless if the takedown happened without injury… Taira did what he needed to do. Unfortunately Perez fell back awkwardly.

“He’s a beast with back control for sure. Would’ve been good to see a bit more of the match up. Really odd to see a knee blow out in that position tho. I’ve never seen that. People normally just fall down into back control.

“Serious question to my expert grapplers out there. Has straightening the leg of your partner on their back, ever caused a knee injury? Because I’ve never seen that until tonight. Taira looked great but I’ve never seen that move/sequence take a knee out before. Interesting stuff.”

Speaking to Michael Bisping in the octagon after Perez had been stretchered out of the UFC Apex, Tatsuro Taira had just one name on his mind as to who he’d like his next opponent to be: champion Alexandre Pantoja.

“Let’s go, title shot!” he exclaimed to the Apex crowd, later adding at the post-fight press conference that he’d be over the moon if the promotion offered him Pantoja next as he eyed a potential homecoming for UFC Japan.

“I want to fight against Pantoja this year, but actually I really want to see who’s going to win out of Kape and Mokaev… I will be very happy if I can fight my title shot against Pantoja in Japan and be the first Japanese champion.”

Aside from the injury, there was yet more debate over the new gloves

Whilst the injury suffered by Perez has indeed put a notable stain on the finishing sequence from the main event of UFC Vegas 93, the fight at least ended in a TKO win on the books.

Since the introduction of the new gloves at UFC 302 earlier this month, there has been a concerningly low number of KO or TKO victories in the octagon.

In fact, since the very first contest on the early prelims of UFC 302, there have only been five KO/TKO finishes in 32 fights since.

Similarly, the new gloves were targeted to reduce the number of eye pokes sustained in matches; we’ve seen those fouls continue in every event since their introduction, with two separate incidents in the main event.