[autotag]Austin Hubbard[/autotag] was primed and ready to finish his UFC on ESPN 11 fight with [autotag]Max Rohskoph[/autotag] in the third round.
Hubbard (12-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) was dominating the lightweight bout, which kicked off Saturday night’s event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, to the degree color commentator Michael Bisping called it “target practice.” This especially rang true in Round 2, which all three judges scored 10-8 in Hubbard’s favor.
So Hubbard was preparing to get the job done inside the distance.
“I was ready to go out there and finish him in that third round,” Hubbard told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after the fight. “I could tell he was broken. I was landing some good shots, some hard shots. In my mind, that fight was not gonna make it to the end of the third.”
Instead, an unusual situation went down: Roshkopf (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who was making his UFC debut, overruled his own corner and declined to come out for the final round, giving Hubbard a TKO win.
“I was surprised,” Hubbard said. “I never experienced that. I know I was hitting him clean; I was hitting him hard. I can’t blame him. He is a tough kid. He was taking them well. I could tell those were hurting him, though. … I could tell he was a little cloudy. I’m not surprised, and in my mind I was finishing that fight for sure.”
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For his part, Hubbard said he would never go against his coaches’ wishes if the situation was reversed.
“I would never do that,” Hubbard said. “They would have to stop me from going out there than me not wanting to go out there.”
With the victory, the Denver-based Hubbard now has won two of his past three. It goes into the books as the first stoppage victory of his UFC tenure.
“This is the next level,” Hubbard said. “I fought a lot of people that were really good before I got here into the UFC. I won multiple regional titles before I got here to the UFC, and I’m really thankful about that. I got into the UFC at 10-2, which seems kinda long. It was longer at the time than I wanted, but it gave me that experience that I need to be here now, and I’m super thankful for that, and I’m looking forward to the future.”
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