Knockout! Anthony Smith drops Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua with a huge elbow at UFC Hamburg

After a slow-moving show at UFC Hamburg that featured nine (nine!) decisions in a row, Anthony Smith brought the Barclaycard Arena to life with a quick first round knockout of former PRIDE and UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Rua was game and moving forward to brawl with Smith ... right up until Smith caught him with an Anderson Silva style front kick that landed right on his jaw and had him on wobbly feet. From there “Lionheart” Smith started to unload pistons on Rua, going left and right, backing “Shogun” across the cage to the fence where he finished the legend off with a huge right elbow.

Afterwards, Smith threw his hat in the ring to take on Alexander Gustafsson, who just lost his opponent at UFC 227 in August to injury.

”I hear Gustafsson needs an opponent,” Smith said to Dan Hardy. “Gustafsson, I’ll see you in L.A.!”

After seeing that quick destruction, we have our doubts Gustafsson will accept that challenge.

For all the action from UFC Hamburg, check out our play-by-play here.