Highlights! Cain Velasquez injures knee, finished in 26 seconds by Francis Ngannou at UFC Phoenix

The return of Cain Velasquez did not go as planned last night (Sun., Feb. 17, 2019) at UFC on ESPN 1 from inside Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, when the former UFC heavyweight champion was finished by Francis Ngannou via TKO just 26 seconds into the first round.

Making matters worse is that Velasquez seemed to injury his knee before the finish occurred. It happened during an exchange along the cage while Cain and Ngannou were mixing it up. Velasquez’s knee buckled when he planted into a short right hand from Ngannou. He fell to the canvas, and “Predator” pounced on top for ground-and-pound to earn the finish.

Check out the highlights above courtesy of UFC/ESPN.

Velasquez did seem to be having trouble with his knee during open workouts earlier this week (shown below courtesy of The Mac Life) so maybe that had something to do with tonight’s situation. It’s also possible that the 36-year-old couldn’t stomach the short right uppercut that Ngannou landed along the cage and he awkwardly fell down.

In any case, Ngannou did what he needed to do en route to finishing the great Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds. It’s a win that should position the intimidating knockout artist close to a heavyweight title shot in 2019.

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