The historic UFC 157: "Rousey vs. Carmouche" main card pay-per-view (PPV) broadcast tonight (Sat., Feb. 23, 2013) from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, kicked off with a welterweight battle pitting longtime Octagon veteran Josh Koscheck taking on the returning Robbie Lawler.

On paper, this was a stylistic nightmare of a match-up, considering the wrestling credentials of the former against the powerful striking of the latter. But would that matter once the two got to banging in the center of the cage?

Of course it would.

In fact, it took just 35 seconds worth of exchanging punches for Koscheck to shoot in for his first takedown, one he finished with relative ease. He worked hard from there too, grinding away for the remainder of the round. Well, that was the plan anyway.

What actually happened was "Ruthless" Robbie sprawled out after getting up to the fence and stepped back enough to get leverage to start pummeling Koscheck's face with monster punches that had "Kos" staring off into the distance with a blank expression on his face.

There was some controversy in the immediate aftermath fueled by color commentator Joe Rogan wondering aloud if the stoppage was premature but that's a debate to be had later.

For now, Lawler is back with a first round technical knockout victory.

For complete results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the UFC 157 action click here.