Yazmin Jauregui Scores 62-Second TKO of Vanessa Demopoulos in UFC Return
Yazmin Jauregui ended a two-year absence in a hurry, stopping Vanessa Demopoulos by TKO at 1:02 of Round 1 to open UFC Fight Night: Rosas Jr. vs. Barcelos on Saturday at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
The strawweight bout was the first fight of the night on Paramount+, and it never settled into a feeling-out period. Jauregui walked out 11-2 and left 12-2. Demopoulos dropped to 11-9.
The 27-year-old from Tijuana had not competed since UFC 306, when Ketlen Souza submitted her in the first round at the Sphere in September 2024. A serious knee injury in camp for a planned March 2025 date in Mexico led to emergency surgery and kept her out until this booking.
Demopoulos, 38, came in on a three-fight losing streak. She had dropped a first-round armbar to Jaqueline Amorim in September 2024, then lost decisions to Talita Alencar and Jamey-Lyn Horth.
Jauregui’s last win before Saturday had also come in Mexico City, a February 2024 decision over Sam Hughes. That gap made the opening minute in Las Vegas the first real look at whether her power was still there.
It was. A counter right hand started the exchange, and Demopoulos gave ground toward the fence. Jauregui stayed on her with a sustained burst of punches that “Lil Monster” absorbed without returning fire in any meaningful way.
Demopoulos eventually went down. Jauregui followed immediately and landed several more shots on the mat before the referee stepped in at 1:02.
The official line from UFC was a TKO by strikes. Post-fight numbers backed up how one-sided the minute had been. Jauregui landed 34 of 56 total strikes at 60.7 percent, while Demopoulos connected on 7 of 19 at 36.8 percent.
Those totals matched her significant-strike line. Jauregui also completed her only takedown attempt. Neither woman was credited with a knockdown or a submission try on the stat sheet.
Demopoulos appeared slow to register the stoppage. Still seated, she held an ankle as if she expected the fight to continue on the ground.
Speaking afterward with Paul Felder, Jauregui pointed first to the work that went into getting back in the cage.
“A lot of hard work was put into this, so thank you to everyone,” she said.
She also acknowledged the doubt that comes with a long medical layoff. She said she had wondered whether she would look like the same fighter, “but my mind was strong, my heart was strong.”
That answer matched what she had described earlier in the week. Speaking to Hablemos MMA before the event, Jauregui said she tore up her knee in sparring while preparing for that canceled Mexico booking and needed emergency surgery.
“That left me on the shelf these two years,” she said then. “Well, two years from my last fight, but a year and nine months from the injury. Now, I feel good.”
The finish was the kind of result the UFC strawweight division has been waiting to see from her again. Seven of her previous 11 wins had already come by knockout or TKO, and this one arrived against a veteran who usually makes opponents work through three rounds.
Demopoulos is now on a four-fight skid. Saturday was her first knockout loss in a career built more on decisions and submissions than sudden stoppages.
For Jauregui, the win moves her UFC record to 4-2 and puts a clean highlight back on a résumé that had stalled after the Souza defeat. It does not by itself push her into ranked territory, but it does restore the version of her that first turned heads with early finishes.
The rest of the Apex card was still ahead, including the five-round bantamweight main event between Raul Rosas Jr. and Raoni Barcelos. Jauregui has no opponent announced for a follow-up, and a result this fast usually puts a fighter back in the conversation as soon as matchmakers start filling the next Las Vegas date.