Tommy McMillen was an agent of chaos in his octagon debut as he invited a brawl with opponent Manolo Zecchini and made the most of it after scoring a devastating first-round knockout at UFC Vegas 115.
A protégé of former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, McMillen had a lot of hype around him coming into Saturday night but despite a wrestling background he was resolved in his decision to trade bombs with Zecchini from the first second of the fight until the last. The featherweights were just throwing heavy leather from the jump but it was McMillen doing the most damage.
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He was relentless with his attacks and Zecchini did his best to keep up but he was absorbing a lot of punishment. Finally with Zecchini hurt and backing up against the cage, McMillen just started unloading a huge barrage of punches and knees until he scored a knockdown.
McMillen kept unloading shots until the referee saw enough and stopped the fight at 3:57 in the opening round.
“Dana White, Hunter Campbell, can I get my $100k at the blackjack table?” McMillen shouted after his win. “I’ve just believed this was going to happen since I was a little kid. I’m blessed to be surrounded by the best team in the world. I’m just thankful to be here. I want to stay active. I want to fight at least three more times this year.
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“To the rest of you, the non-believers, the under achievers, the tweet and deleters, ya’ll make me sick to my f*cking stomach. You guys want to do something about it? Let’s go!
Now 10-0 in his career, McMillen starts his UFC run with a win but he’ll definitely have a big target on his back, especially after his debut performance while coming from the same camp as somebody as polarizing as O’Malley.
McMillen also enjoyed a large crowd supporting him on Saturday as he gets the job done while Zecchini falls to 0-2 in the UFC.
