Anthony Smith Stops Josh Neer in Opening Round of Victory FC 47 Main Event

There was no love lost between 15-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Josh Neer and Anthony Smith, which bred some trash talk and ill-will between the two veterans leading up to their Victory FC 47 main event. But when the bell rang to start the scuffle in Baxter Arena in Omaha, Smith wasted little time in ending the fight, which capped off the first-ever VFC fight card on UFC’s Fight Pass.

Neer had already toppled Smith more than two years ago via third-round rear-naked choke. “Lionheart” promised the same thing wouldn’t happen again and he was accurate. In fact, he never allowed the fight to go to the ground because he wound up stopping “The Dentist” via standing TKO in the opening frame.

After a few minutes of sporadic strikes between the two and Neer unable to drag his taller middleweight adversary to the canvas, it wasn’t long before Smith’s reach advantage came into play. A thudding right to the head wobbled Neer, who retreated to a corner to regroup. Smith, sensing a stoppage, quickly closed the gap and refused to allow Neer to escape. From there, the local fighter teed off on Neer with bruising punches and elbows to the head.

Neer covered up as best he could, but the veteran couldn’t fend off everything and suffered because of it. Several more strikes crashed onto his noggin and since he couldn’t defend himself, referee Brandon Pfannenstiel had no choice but to jump in and stop the mugging.

The official time of the TKO came at 3:27 of the opening frame, allowing Smith to capture the vacant Victory FC middleweight title.

In the co-main event, Jarred Mercado bounced back from a sluggish opening round to force defending featherweight champ Alonzo Martinez to succumb to a rear-naked choke. The two scrambled along the fence near the halfway point of the stanza, but as soon as “Zo Diddy” got to his gloves and knees, Mercado seized his back, sunk in the hooks and latched on the textbook choke.

Martinez tried to fend it off, but the choke was too tight, forcing the titlist to tap out. The submission came at 2:15 of the round, allowing Mercado to snatch the belt away from Martinez, who actually weighed three pounds over the featherweight limit at Thursday’s weigh-ins.

UFC veteran Yuri Villefort knocked Kenneth Glenn into orbit with an early candidate for knockout of the year. Villefort surprised his foe by launching into the air with a perfect flying knee, dropping Glenn with the single blow and knocking him out for almost two minutes. The KO came 4:15 into the first.

Veterans Dakota Cochrane and Jake Lindsey waged a spirited battle, but in the end it was Cochrane who was the better man. Lindsey controlled the action for most of the bout and was ahead 2-0 on the cards going into the final round, but Cochrane latched onto his foe’s neck and dropped to guard, forcing the tap via guillotine at 3:43 of the third.

Cody Carrillo defeated Sean Wilson via technical submission in just 32 seconds of their 160-pound catchweight battle; Grant Dawson took out Bryce Logan courtesy of punches from the mount at 3:12 of the second; Raufeon Stots submitted Demetrious Wilson via rear-naked choke with just 15 seconds remaining in the final frame; and Nate Flanders won via submission when Seth Bass tapped out due to an injured knee at 3:09 of the first.