Imanol Rodriguez Knocks Out Alden Coria in the First Round
Imanol Rodriguez knocked out Alden Coria with a body kick in the first round of their flyweight fight at UFC 332. The stoppage came at 3:11 on Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, and it kept the unbeaten prospect perfect.
The bout sat on the prelims. Rodriguez entered 7-0 and already had a UFC knockout on his record. Coria came in at 13-4-0 with one no contest, a longer résumé, and a four-inch height edge.
The finish did not need the third minute of trouble to announce itself. Rodriguez was already landing to the body before the clock hit 1:56. A front kick to the midsection then dropped Coria flat. Rodriguez stepped in, and the referee waved it off while Coria was still on the canvas.
The stats card called it a KO/TKO. Rodriguez scored the only knockdown and the only takedown, going 1 of 1. He landed 20 of 46 total strikes. Coria connected on 4 of 17. Every one of Rodriguez’s landed shots counted as significant. Neither man attempted a submission.
Rodriguez moved to 8-0. Coria fell to 13-5-0 with one no contest.
This is Rodriguez’s second win in the UFC, and both have ended in a knockout. He stopped Kevin Borjas on March 1, then sat out a planned appearance at UFC Las Vegas 118 after an undisclosed injury. Saturday was the return. The Mexican fighter, out of Ensenada, did not need a full round to make the layoff look irrelevant.
Coria, from Houston, had the reach and the experience. He did not have an answer once the body kick landed. Four significant strikes in more than three minutes was not enough volume to steal the exchanges, and he never got a takedown attempt off. The height advantage stayed a listing on the tale of the tape.
At 125 pounds, a first-round body finish travels. Rodriguez is 26 and still outside the rankings. No next opponent was named after the stoppage. The flyweight title fight sat later on the same card, and this result does not put him in that conversation yet. It does put another knockout on a record that still has no loss on it.
Coria’s night ended on the mat. A second look at 125 will depend on how soon he wants back in after a kick he did not see coming.
Rodriguez leaves Salt Lake City still unbeaten, with both of his UFC wins coming by stoppage. The body kick is the clip. The next name is the only open question.
