UFC 290: Denise Gomes upsets Yazmin Jauregui with brutal 20-second KO

LAS VEGAS — Yazmin Jauregui nearly blew the roof off of T-Mobile Arena when she entered the Octagon for her bout Saturday with Denise Gomes at UFC 290. The heavily pro-Mexican crowd was vociferously backing Jauregui, a 10-0 Mexican strawweight from Tijuana.

But as quickly as it started, it was over and the crowd looked on in stunned silence during the preliminary card of UFC 290.

Jauregui bounced out of her corner to be met by a crisp right cross by Gomes. It stunned her, but she didn’t have the time to move to safety and reset. Gomes followed immediately with an overhand right that dropped Jauregui to one knee.

Jauregui staggered to a corner against the fence, with Gomes in hot pursuit. Gomes fired several punches at Jauregui until referee Jason Herzog had seen enough and hopped in to stop it just 20 seconds in.

“A lot of people underestimated me,” said Gomes, who improved to 7-2 with the knockout. She lost her pro debut but has now reeled off seven wins in her last eight outings. “ … We knew we were going to win.”

Jauregui was 2-0 in the UFC and had been building a bit of momentum with impressive performances against Iasmin Lucindo and Istela Nunes.

She was a solid 4-1 favorite Saturday but couldn’t recover from the first right to the chin.

“I didn’t know when it was going to happen but I knew I was going to hurt her and come out with a win,” Gomes said.