Sunday’s highly anticipated main event clash between lightweight contenders Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa met an abbreviated end at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, with Detroit’s Lee earning his biggest UFC win to date via first-round submission.
The 155-pounders traded takedowns in the first two minutes, with Lee being the first to keep the fight grounded. This wasn’t a problem for Chiesa, who looked for a submission from the bottom, but Lee countered by taking his foe’s back and firing off punches as he looked to open up Chiesa for a choke. With under a minute left, Lee got the rear naked choke in, and while Chiesa didn’t tap, referee Mario Yamasaki saw fit to halt the bout at the 4:37 mark. Chiesa immediately jumped up to protest, but the call stood.
“I just follow what the ref tells me,” Lee said. “If the ref tells me to stop, I stop. If he wants to do it again, we can, but it was just gonna be four more rounds of that.”
With the win, the No. 11-ranked Lee improves to 16-2. The No. 6-ranked Chiesa falls to 14-3.
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