Yazmin Jauregui stops Vanessa Demopoulos, then drops a knee to free her leg from her grip

Demopoulos was out on the canvas but still holding Jauregui's leg after the first-round stoppage that opened UFC Vegas 121. Jauregui dropped a knee on her to get free, with the referee alongside.

By Combat Sports UK Staff · Published Sat 26 Sept, 22:25 UK · Updated Sun 27 Sept, 04:22 UK · AI-assisted reporting

Post by @ufc on X

Yazmin Jauregui opened UFC Vegas 121 with a first-round stoppage of Vanessa Demopoulos, but it was what happened after the referee stepped in that got people talking.

Demopoulos had been knocked out, yet she was still gripping Jauregui's leg as she lay on the canvas. With the referee already over Demopoulos, Jauregui dropped a knee onto her to break the hold and pull her leg free, as the UFC's own footage of the finish shows. The UFC posted the clip under the line "Welcome back Yazmin" and called it a "first round finish".

To some watching, it looked like a shot at a beaten opponent. "Jauregui just dropped a knee on her unconscious opponent after the fight," one fan wrote on X. The replay tells a different story: Demopoulos had hold of Jauregui's leg, and the knee was Jauregui's way of getting out of a grip her opponent did not know she was holding. The referee was right beside both of them and took no action.

The finish earned Jauregui a Performance of the Night bonus, the UFC announced after the card. The win came in the opening fight of the prelims at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Every result from the card is in our UFC Vegas 121 live results.

In this story

Yazmin Jauregui Vanessa Demopoulos