- Vinicius Oliveira landed the flying knee with 20 seconds left in the third round.
- Oliveira earned his third consecutive victory and improved to a 20-3 record
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Vinicius Oliveira stole the show at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas with a flying knee in the final seconds of his fight with Bernardo Sopaj.
The Brazilian bantamweight and his Albanian counterpart were face to face with 26 seconds left when Oliveira initiated a combo that led to the knockout.
As Sopaj threw a jab, Oliveira met him with a low kick that knocked him off balance. He immediately followed up with a left hook that sent Sopaj reeling and partially facing away from his opponent.
Before Sopaj could turn around, Oliveira began his run and jumped for the flying knee near the octagon fence.
His right knee landed flush with Sopaj’s chin as he fell like a rag doll to the canvas.
Vinicius Oliveira landed a flying knee to knock out Bernardo Sopaj at the end of the third round.
With the victory, Oliveira earned his third consecutive victory and improves to a 20-3 MMA record.
Before scoring the knockout of the year candidate, Oliveira and Sopaj’s fight was far from lopsided. Oliveira landed 88 of his 170 total strikes and 67 of 144 significant strikes.
Sopaj efficiently landed 92 of 146 of his strikes, 45 (of 86) of which were considered significant. He also had four minutes and 28 seconds of control time compared to Oliveira’s one minute and 36 seconds.
Additionally, Sopaj completed three of his four takedowns while Oliveira completed two of four.
The victory takes Oliveira to a record of 20-3 with 16 knockouts and a three-game winning streak. On the other hand, Sopaj’s three consecutive victories failed to extend and his record became 11-3.
