The UFC staged its first event at the Apex facility on this day five years ago, and the card opened with a bang.
The UFC quickly resumed its schedule following the COVID-19 outbreak with three cards at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville during mid-May.
A couple of weeks later, Octagon action took place at the promotion’s low-capacity Apex facility for the very first time. The promotion still holds cards there even to this day, with the tally of UFC Apex shows now at 113.
Countless fights have played out there, and the very first to go down saw a bantamweight enter the history books.
Chris Gutierrez landed rare leg-kick TKO at first UFC Vegas event
Kicking off the night on May 30, 2020, was a 135-pound clash between Chris Gutierrez and Vince Morales.
The former put his brutal leg-kicking attacks on full display, and the accumulation of shots to Morales’ lower limbs ultimately resulted in a rare TKO.
With the win, Gutierrez became the 10th fighter to record a leg-kick stoppage in the UFC, marking the 11th instance of the finish in the promotion’s history.
While it was his first inside the Octagon, ‘El Guapo’ delivered a similar performance pre-UFC when he used leg kicks to stop Jimmy Flick under the Xtreme Fight Night banner in 2018.
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Chris Gutierrez sent the legendary Frankie Edgar into retirement with brutal knee KO
Gutierrez went unbeaten across his next four bouts before getting the biggest matchup of his career to date.
The 34-year-old was tasked with serving as the final opponent for legendary former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
‘The Answer’ had his hopes for a winning end to his career quickly ended, with Gutierrez knocking Edgar out at UFC 281 via a brutal knee just over two minutes into round one.
Gutierrez has been unable to build on that high-profile result in the years since, winning three of five fights and failing to cement a spot in the rankings.
Most recently, ‘El Guapo’ made a successful return to featherweight against John Castaneda at the UFC Kansas City event, headlined by Ian Machado Garry vs Carlos Prates.