The UFC's "BMF" title is being decided in two months at Madison Square Garden, but you could argue that an "interim" of sorts was decided Saturday at UFC Vancouver between Justin Gaethje and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone.
Cerrone and Gaethje are both known as some of the most exciting, crowd pleasing UFC stars in history, let alone in the modern day 155-pound division. With things falling into place at lightweight, the bout had major implications.
The fight, as short as it may be, delivered. A few exchanges led to Gaethje connecting with a huge right that dropped Cerrone. Gaethje asked for the fight to be stopped multiple times before it actually was. Cerrone, clearly out of it, hopped up to protest the stoppage, which realistically was too late.
The win serves as the third in a row for Gaethje, who also hoped to pick up his sixth consecutive fight night performance bonus. Moving to 4-2 in the UFC, all of Gaethje's fights in the company have been finished within the distance.
Following the fight, Gaethje said that he didn't want to face the "retired" Conor McGregor, instead challenging the winner of an eventual Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson title fight.
You can see our full coverage of UFC Vancouver at this link, and our post-show podcast at this link. You can also tune in Tuesday 2 PM EST to hear us talk about the show on the Fightful MMA Podcast