Tiequan Zhang is still a bit of a mysterious character, but there's no question about the fact that he's a pretty solid MMA competitor.
Zhang dropped to featherweight for his UFC debut and smoked Jason Reinhardt in less than a minute at UFC 127. Zhang locked on a guillotine choke (pictured below) and nearly put Reinhardt out at the 0:48 mark of the first round in Sydney, Australia.
Zhang (13-1, 1-0 UFC, 1-1 WEC) is the first fighter from China to compete in the UFC. He made his Zuffa debut in 2010.
He looked extremely comfortable in this one, as he stalked Reinhardt from the start. Zhang followed the shorter fighter around the cage looking to land something big. He closed space along the cage and when Reinhardt dropped his head a bit, Zhang went for the choke.
Reinhardt pushed forward and the fight fell to the ground where he was trapped in the nasty choke. He waited until the very last second to tap. When Zhang released the choke, Reinhardt didn't move, he was groggy and out of it.
Zhang, 32, nicknamed "The Mongolian Wolf," is a sanshou specialist. His trainer said he's also recently been elevated to a jiu-jitsu brown belt. China is an untapped MMA breeding ground internationally. With a strong martial arts background, China could be quite the source for talent over the next five years. The Chinese fight fan market is also untapped and a big reason why UFC put Zhang's fight on Facebook.
Watch UFC 127 right here on Yahoo! Sports.
Perosh crushes Blackledge in UFC 205 debut
Anthony Perosh hasn't carved out much of a reputation in the UFC, simply because he's been a card filler at heavyweight. The Aussie was overmatched against the big guys. Today, down at more comfortable weight, he was able to show off his vaunted jiu-jitsu game and blew through Tom Blackledge.
Perosh (10-6, 1-3 UFC) missed on his first two takedowns, but when he scored a third with 3:13 left in the first, Blackledge was nearly helpless off his back. Perosh softened up Blackledge by raining down punches and then settled into the Brit's half guard. He quickly passed to the mount where Blackledge bailed and spun to his stomach. That was a bad move because Perosh locked on a rear-naked choke just seconds later forcing the tap.
Perosh suffered UFC losses in 2006 to Christian Wellisch and Jeff Monson. He took a beating against Mirko Filipovic last year at UFC 110.
UFC 127 undercard results:
Curt Warburton def. Maciej Jewtuszko via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Mark Hunt def. Chris Tuchscherer via knockout (punches) - Round 2, 1:41
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