Top 5: Fastest Finishes in UFC Welterweight Title Fights

Tyron Woodley leaned into a violent burst of offense to bring down one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most beloved competitors.

The two-time NCAA All-American wrestler disposed of Robbie Lawler with punches in the first round of their UFC 201 headliner on July 30, 2016 at Philips Arena in Atlanta, where he laid claim to the undisputed welterweight crown. Woodley closed it out 2:12 into Round 1 and became just the second man—Nick Diaz was the first—to stop the Kill Cliff Fight Club rep with strikes.


“I feel alright,” Lawler said afterward. “I mean, obviously he caught me with the ol’ T-Wood bomb. I was just sitting back a little too much, and he took advantage of it. It was his night.”

Lawler never knew what hit him. Woodley dropped the champion against the fence with a blistering right hook and followed with a series of unanswered rights that forced referee Dan Miragliotta to intervene. The dazed Lawler had no chance to defend himself, a remarkable late-career run of five straight victories and his 602-day reign atop the 170-pound weight class at an end.

“Robbie is a guy that I admire,” Woodley said. “I love his comeback story. No other mixed martial artist has had a comeback story like Robbie. I technically just beat the best welterweight in the world. It wasn’t a guy out of his prime. These guys are legends.”

Nearly a decade later, Woodley’s knockout of “Ruthless Robbie” remains the fastest finish in a UFC welterweight title fight. The best of the rest:

Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre

UFC 69
April 7, 2007 | Houston
Awarded a title shot for winning Season 4 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, Serra entered his main event opposite a true pound-for-pound luminary as a +700 underdog. He was viewed as David to St. Pierre’s Goliath, absent the sling and the stone. Some wondered if “Rush” would even break a sweat in defending the welterweight championship for the first time since he dethroned Matt Hughes. A little more than three minutes after the confrontation began, the MMA world had witnessed arguably the greatest upset in the sport’s history. A fearless and motivated Serra sliced and diced the Firas Zahabi protege with power punches and eventually climbed to full mount to finish him 3:25 into the first round. The unexpected adversity forced St. Pierre to re-examine his approach at age 25. He never lost again. After consecutive victories over the aforementioned Hughes and Josh Koscheck, St. Pierre brutalized Serra in their rematch to reclaim the welterweight crown. He went on to win his final 13 bouts and closed out his remarkable career by capturing the middleweight title and becoming the fourth two-division champion in UFC history.

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg

UFC 45
Nov. 21, 2003 | Uncasville, Connecticut
Hughes strengthened his stranglehold on the undisputed welterweight championship when he dismissed the former University of Oklahoma wrestler with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their “Revolution” headliner at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Trigg capitulated 3:54 into Round 1. Hughes sprang a reversal after being taken down inside the first 10 seconds, worked through his opponent’s sprawl, hoisted him skyward and dumped him to the canvas. Trigg flirted with a kimura and scrambled to his feet, only to be grounded again. He refused to stay down, however, and maneuvered into a takedown through a combination of stubbornness and technique. Hughes ate a few standing-to-ground lefts from the New York native but managed to sweep into top position once more. He then progressed to the back, anchored himself with hooks and cinched the fight-ending choke.

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg

UFC 52
April 16, 2005 | Las Vegas
Serious bad blood existed between the two rivals when they rematched one another at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Hughes had put away “Twinkle Toes” with a rear-naked choke some 17 months earlier, so an undercurrent of revenge was present; and Trigg nearly tapped into it. After a groin strike to Hughes went unseen by the referee, the challenger bludgeoned the Miletich Fighting Systems cornerstone with heavy punches. Hughes absorbed a volley of unanswered shots, and the possibility of a massive upset seemed more likely with each passing second. Trigg even threatened with a rear-naked choke, but the reigning welterweight champion stayed calm in the face of serious difficulty and soon recovered from the foul. Trigg failed to secure the choke, surrendered position and provided his adversary with an avenue through which to escape. Hughes rose to his feet, scooped up a stunned Trigg and carried him across the Octagon before slamming him to the canvas. The crowd roared with deafening approval. It remains one of the most iconic moments in Ultimate Fighting Championship history. From there, Hughes blasted Trigg with punches and elbows, applied the rear-naked choke and forced the tapout 4:05 into the first round.

B.J. Penn vs. Matt Hughes

UFC 46
Jan. 31, 2004 | Las Vegas
Hughes bore a resemblance to a runaway freight train when he put his welterweight championship on the line against the Hawaiian at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. One opponent after another had bowed to his poisonous mix of powerful wrestling, nasty ground-and-pound and technical grappling, as he had rattled off five consecutive title defenses. Penn, meanwhile, was one of the most gifted fighters in the sport and had rebounded from a majority decision loss to Jens Pulver in 2002, with victories over Paul Creighton, Serra and Takanori Gomi sandwiched around a five-round draw against Caol Uno. So-called experts believed Hughes was too strong for the popular but undersized challenger. They could not have been more wrong in their assessment. Penn took it to the champion on the feet, and when Hughes stumbled after whiffing on a left hand, “The Prodigy” tossed him to the mat. Penn passed the guard, advanced to the back and bit down on a rear-naked choke. Hughes had no choice but to raise the white flag 4:39 into Round 1, as he emerged from Penn’s clutches with a blank stare and reluctantly passed the torch. It was his first loss in almost three years.