Elijah Smith gave a shout out to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson just seconds after delivering perhaps the most vicious slam knockout in octagon history at UFC on ESPN 72.
Smith (9-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) got the first massive highlight of his young promotional career on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He picked up Kazama (11-4 MMA, 1-3 UFC) from bottom position and slammed him in an eerily similar way to Jackson’s famous finish of Ricardo Arona under the PRIDE FC banner and slammed him to the mat, putting him out cold.
The finish came at the 4:10 mark of Round 1, and after a number of scary moments with Kazama down on the ground, he regained consciousness and was taken out of the octagon while Smith was declared the winner.
Check out the replay of the finish below (via X):
Once the dust settled on the spectacular win, Smith, who is just the second second-generation fighter in company history after his father Gilbert Smith fought for the UFC, said he knew the slam KO was a path to the win.
“Unfortunately, I had to slam him on his dome piece,” Smith said in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier. “I knew I was going to be strong and powerful. I hope that slam gets in that conversation (for a bonus).”
