UFC 254 Full Fight Video: Watch Justin Gaethje Knock Out Tony Ferguson

The headlining bout of UFC 249 Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje in a battle for the interim UFC lightweight title.

Ferguson opened the fight with his funky footwork and movement. Gaethje, as expected, wanted to slow Ferguson with low kicks. Gaethje landed a nice left hook two minutes into the round, but the always tough Ferguson ate the blow with little difficulty. Gaethje’s heavy strikes were finding their mark throughout the first stanza.

Gaethje landed some hard punches in the second round, but Ferguson ate them. However, the punches got Ferguson’s respect and prevented him from doing much countering, but Ferguson kept moving. As the round wore on, Ferguson avoided some bigger strikes from his opponent, but he still ate more than he should have. At the very end of the round, Ferguson scored with a perfect uppercut that dropped Gaethje at the horn.

Between the second and third round, Gaethje’s coach told him to take 10 percent off his punches, hoping to preserve some energy.

Ferguson’s eyes were both swollen and bleeding in the early going of the third round. Gaethje hurt Ferguson pretty badly with less than three minutes left in that stanza, but Ferguson recovered. However, Ferguson was wearing the damage. With less than 30 seconds left in the round, Ferguson ate a kick and a punch that staggered him, but he stayed on his feet.

Ferguson started the fourth round with some strange motion, but Gaethje stayed focused and kept landing his heavy strikes. With 2:30 left in the round, Ferguson was in trouble. Gaethje landed a head strike and Ferguson’s damaged legs struggled to hold him up as he briefly disengaged from his opponent.

Heading into the fifth round, Gaethje was confident and relaxed, but his coach, Trevor Wittman, reminded him that he needed to stay focused and not get cocky as that had cost him two previous fights. Gaethje agreed and then went out and kept sticking it to Ferguson, whose 12-fight winning streak was in a lot of danger of ending.

Gaethje hurt Ferguson badly with two minutes left in the round. He did not rush in for the finish. He remained calm and just kept racking up points via damage. As the clock wore down, Ferguson was a bloody mess and after he ate some heavy strikes and shook his head oddly, referee Herb Dean waved off the fight.

Ferguson did not like the stoppage, but most other fighters would have seen that fight stopped much earlier. With the win, Gaethje should earn a title unification bout against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

That fight takes place on Saturday and serves as the main event of UFC 254. UFC 254 takes place on Saturday from Fight Island in Abu Dhabi. The event takes place much earlier than a normal UFC pay-per-view event. The ESPN+ streaming main card begins at 2:00 p.m ET. Following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+ at noon ET and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ESPN+ at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Before Nurmagomedov and Gaethje meet, watch Gaethje’s knockout win over Ferguson.