RENO, Nevada, Oct. 28 — Urijah Faber (Pictures) survived an early takedown and rear-naked choke attempt before stopping Bibiano Fernandes at 4:16 of the first Saturday at the beautiful Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino.

Highlighted by Faber’s performance as well as Kyacey Uscola (Pictures)’s shocker over veteran Akira Shoji (Pictures), the eight-fight card provided plenty of thrills and chills for the costumed crowd on a crisp October evening.

While Faber enjoyed far more experience in the cage than Fernandes — 16 fights compared to just one — the seven-time BJJ world champion nevertheless pressured “The California Kid” at the opening bell.

Faber was immediately in danger as Fernandes clung to his back with both hooks in. While Fernandes dug for a choke, Faber clutched the challenger’s gloves and fought off the attack for nearly a minute before spinning into the top inside guard position.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based Faber applied the “slice and survive” technique he is known for, unloading a series of slashing elbows which despite not hurting Fernandes did open up a deep cut on his forehead. “I wanted to cut him up and make him bleed,” Faber said afterwards.

The KOTC bantamweight champion got his wish and the match was stopped while cut men tried to stem the heavy blood flow. Their work was not enough to prevent more bleeding after a restart, forcing the eventual stoppage.

“I really want to fight Urijah again,” Fernandes said after the match through an interpreter. “I wasn’t hurt and I felt that I had controlled the fight, but they just could not close the cut.”

KOTC Promoter Terry Trebilcock had his own take on the stoppage.

“I think that it’s a shame that elbows are allowed on the ground,” he said. “I really think they should be made illegal. This could have been a great fight that went back and forth for several rounds, but instead it was decided not when one fighter proved his technical superiority, but rather by a cut. This could just as easily have happened to Urijah and I would have been equally disappointed that an injury cut short what could have been a classic match-up. I don’t think any fan wants to see a fight end like this.”

Coming into his fight with Akira Shoji (Pictures), many felt Kyacey Uscola (Pictures) simply did not have the firepower to beat back the heavy-handed Japanese — especially since Uscola was coming off a disappointing loss to Detroit’s Brendan Seguin (Pictures) just a few weeks ago.

Uscola, however, was very active from the opening bell and used his reach advantage to punish Shoji with stinging jabs whenever he tried to clinch. When the fight did go into the cage, Uscola fought off takedowns and punished Shoji with knees.

The one time Shoji did get a takedown in the opening round Uscola reversed him and got on top, landing several good flurries there. In period two Uscola continued using his jab to keep Shoji moving backwards, and then began scoring with punch-kick combos.

With Shoji on unsteady legs, Uscola finally landed the finishing combo on the Japanese fighter at 2:23 of the second. All-American wrestling skills combined with quick and powerful hands and the ability to kick with power either high or low make Uscola dazzling when he is on his game.

In preliminary action Jeremy Freitag (Pictures) armbarred Rolando Torres (Pictures) at 2:47 of round one. Gigo Jara (Pictures) employed a relentless and devastating clinch knee attack on Khomkirt Niimi that opened him up and led to a stoppage at 4:55 of the first. A.J. Fonseca and Danny Ailes had an exciting match filled with non-stop action that went the distance. Fonseca earned the unanimous judges’ nod.

Three opening matches all ended quickly in the first round. Justin Sampson knocked out Brad Sandavol with a head kick at 3:01. Jeff Morris (Pictures) grounded-and-pounded Steven Rivenbark for the TKO victory 80 seconds after the opening bell. And Ben Sattler locked in a rear-naked choke on Cody Canterbury for the win at the 2:16 mark.