Travis Browne is back. The Hawaiian heavyweight had his road to a UFC title blocked by Fabricio Werdum a few months ago, but he put it all together and thoroughly dominated Brendan Schaub at UFC 181. He picked up a first-round TKO victory over the former TUF runner-up.
The lead-up to the fight had an interesting dynamic and it seemed that the two men genuinely didn’t like each other. Both men got off to tepid starts in the cage, not landing much of anything early. Schaub got a takedown, but Browne was able to quickly return to his feet.
As Schaub stepped forward, Browne caught him with a huge uppercut and pushed Schaub to the mat. He was able to mount him a couple of times but Schaub managed to hang on. Finally he rolled over and Browne battered him with punches until referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the bout at the 4:50 mark of the first round.