It only took Abdul Alhassan 17 seconds to join an elite class of UFC fighters on Saturday night.
Alhassan, just 17 seconds into the prelim bout at UFC Vegas 35, landed a monstrous kick straight to Alessio Di Chirico’s head to complete the knockout win.
Alhasssan is now just the seventh fighter in UFC history to bank at least three knockouts in less than a minute in his career.
Alhassan knew he had won as soon as he landed the kick, too. He started celebrating instantly.
“I cannot wait to tell [my son] daddy won,” Alhassan said, via MMA fighting. “It’s something we’ve been practicing. It was actually supposed to be the left kick. I saw his head go that way and I just threw it.”
Di Chirico has now lost four of his last five bouts dating back to a 2019 loss to Kevin Holland. His lone win came in January, when he knocked out Joaquin Buckley in the first round.
Alhassan now has 11 first-round knockouts in his career. The win also snapped a three-fight losing streak for Alhassan, who was coming off a loss to Jacob Malkoun in April.
