Lightweight fighter Kevin Croom entered the Octagon at the Apex in Las Vegas Saturday evening as a major underdog in his UFC debut.
In fact, Roosevelt Roberts was a plus-450 favorite to win and bounce back from his defeat at the hands of Jim Miller in his previous bout.
No one could have anticipated what we saw within the first 35 seconds of the preliminary fight. Check out Croom submit his opponent with a rare standing guillotine at the 31-second mark of the initial round.
That filthy left before pounding Roberts to the mat was something to behold. It’s obviously something we don’t see every day in the MMA world.
As for Croom, this represented his first career UFC win in his first fight at this level. The “hard-hitting hillbilly,” as he’s called, was 21-12 in his professional career before Saturday night’s UFC debut. That included defeating Anderson Hutchinson at the Fighting Alliance Championship last month.
He might very well be a force moving forward.