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MMA

07th Oct 2018

Vicente Luque absolutely stiffens UFC debutant on two weeks notice

Out cold

Darragh Murphy

Give that man a ranking.

If there was any doubt over whether Vicente Luque deserves a top 15 ranking or not, he ended that in some style on the preliminary card of UFC 229 on Saturday night.

It’s been just two weeks since Luque was officially booked for a welterweight meeting with UFC newcomer Jalin Turner but the short-notice aspect of the fight against a touted prospect did nothing to affect Luque’s plans to steamroll yet another opponent.

Luque claimed his third consecutive win inside the distance by brutalising Turner with ruthless ground and pound after a solid right hand landed.

On a night of many finishes, Luque added another when he rendered Turner unconscious with a series of wild left hands which stiffened the youngster’s legs.

“I saw that he felt it, I couldn’t let him go. I knew that he could have gotten up and recovered so I thought that I had to finish this fight now,” Luque said in his post-fight interview.

“I’ve been asking for top 15 opponents for a long time but I’m not going to ask for top 15s anymore. I believe that I’m a top 10 fighter. I want to be ranked right now.

“Whatever the rankings say, I don’t care about that anymore. I’m a top 15 guy and that’s what I believe. I want to fight the top guys and go all the way to the title.”