MONTREAL - Mauricio (Shogun) Rua caught the elusive Lyoto (The Dragon) Machida once again, but this time he didn't let the champ, or the light-heavyweight belt, slip away.
Rua, who lost a controversial decision to Machida last October, refused to let the judges decide his fate Saturday in their heavily anticipated rematch Saturday at UFC 113 in Montreal.
He didn't even let the tilt get past 3:35 of the first round.
Rua (19-4) again proved that he could hit his fellow Brazilian, one of the world's most slippery mixed martial arts fighters, as the UFC touched down in Montreal for the third time in three years.
The 28-year-old floored the previously undefeated Machida (16-1) with a big right, jumped on top of him and fired away with his fists, only letting up on his burst moments before the referee stepped in.
"When I connected with the overhand right punch (while) standing up I already noticed that he was going out," Rua said through an interpreter in the post-fight news conference.
"When we see that opportunity, we go in there for the kill."
After it was all over, Machida took a long time to get back on his feet. He left the cage holding a bag of ice to a huge welt under his left eye.
Many believed Rua should have won their first battle last fall at UFC 104, a fight in which he repeatedly struck Machida with leg kicks.
"For this fight, I knew him better so I tried to exploit him and to take more risks," Rua said.
"All the controversy that was in the first fight just served as motivation for me to train hard, believe in it, come here and get this win."
UFC president Dana White praised Rua for his performance.
"Shogun Rua proved tonight that the first time maybe everybody was right with the scoring," White said.
"To go out and knock out Lyoto Machida in the first round the way that he did, I mean to say it's impressive is stupid. It's unbelievable."
In the co-main-event, Josh Koscheck (17-4) won by unanimous decision over Paul (Semtex) Daley (23-9-2) in a bitter showdown.
With the win, Koscheck now gets a crack at welterweight champion and Montreal hometown hero Georges St-Pierre.
He also won the chance to serve as coach opposite St-Pierre on the 12th season of the reality TV show "The Ultimate Fighter."
In recent weeks, the fighters engaged in a war of words and the bad blood spilled over after the bout when Daley sucker-punched Koscheck, who could be seen chirping into his ear through the last half of the final round.
"It was probably his best punch of the fight," Koscheck said in the post-fight news conference.
In the opening round, Daley appeared to hit Koscheck in the head with his knee as he was trying to get up from the mat -- an illegal strike in the UFC.
Koscheck put his hand on his head and fell to the ground, apparently in pain. But in the replay shown on the arena screen, it appeared that Daley completely missed Koscheck with his knee.
After a short pause, the fight resumed and 17,647 angry Bell Centre fans let Koscheck have it for the alleged dive.
"Daley, Daley, Daley," they chanted between choruses of boos.
After the win, a grinning Koscheck rubbed it in by shouting to the crowd that St-Pierre is now going to lose twice.
"I knew that if they booed me, then I was going to get even with them," Koscheck told reporters.
On his way down the tunnel, fans taunted the 32-year-old Californian, who lost to St-Pierre in 2007 at UFC 74, and lobbed objects at him.
White said Daley's UFC days are through because of the cheapshot.
"He's done," White said.
"It was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever seen because he is a talented guy and he is one of the best 170-pounders in the world."
In an explosive, stand-up battle between two heavy-hitting lightweights, Jeremy (Lil' Heathen) Stephens (18-5) beat Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout of London, Ont. (16-6-1) by split decision.
Between them, the fighters have won six bonus cheques in past fights for their highlight-reel assaults and this bout had no shortage of fireworks.
The men dug deep into their striking repertoires, firing away with everything from spinning punches to flying knees.
Stout took Stephens down in the third round with a strong leg kick and punches, but the 23-year-old American stayed alive to finish the fight.
"I'm a warrior," Stephens, in his first trip to Canada, said in the cage after the fight. "I don't stop, I just keep going."
In one of the most intriguing fights of the night, ex-NFL lineman Matt Mitrione (2-0) pummelled former street fighter Kimbo Slice (4-2).
In the first round, Slice tossed the 260-pound Mitrione around the Octagon and tried to choke him out, but the football player held on and bounced back in the second.
Mitrione, 31, chopped Slice to the mat with a hard kick and manhandled him on the ground, landing knees and punches along the way.
Slice, whose real name is Kevin Ferguson, winced in pain through his lush beard a few times after Mitirone connected.
Once the 36-year-old Slice was on the ground, he could barely protect himself from Mitrione's barrage, forcing the referee to stop the fight at 4:24. White said afterwards that he plans to cut Slice from UFC.
Earlier, middleweight Alan (The Talent) Belcher (14-5) drew boos from the Bell Centre fans by taking out local favourite Patrick (The Predator) Cote (14-5).
Belcher, 26, lifted the heavy-hitting Quebec City native and drove his head into the floor before forcing Cote to tap out with a rear naked choke at 3:25 of the second round.
The brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu from Biloxi, Miss., has now won four out of his last five fights.
The 30-year-old Cote had battled back from a knee injury that kept him sidelined for 18 months to finally fight in the UFC on home turf.
The last time Cote entered the UFC Octagon was at UFC 90 in October 2008 when he blew out his knee against middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Rua won knockout of the night, Belcher had submission of the night and the Stephens-Stout battle took home fight of the night. The bonus cheque for each of those fighters was $65,000.
Five Canadians battled in Saturday's blood-filled undercard, but only Joe (El Dirte) Doerksen came out on top.
Winnipeg middleweight Doerksen (45-12) took a beating in the first round against (Filthy) Tom Lawlor (6-3 and one no contest), as the two unloaded stiff punches and uppercuts.
Bleeding from his left eye in the second round, Doerksen took Lawlor to the ground and applied a rear naked choke, forcing the American to tap out at 2:10 for the win.
Before the fight, Lawlor strutted into the arena first, wearing a U.S. flag and a top hat emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes. The James Brown rendition of Living in America -- made famous by Apollo Creed's entrance in Rocky IV -- blasted in the building.
But after it was over, "Canada, Canada, Canada" echoed in the bleachers.
The other Canadians on the preliminary card weren't as fortunate as Doerksen.
Marcus (The Irish Hand Grenade) Davis dropped two bombs on Jonathan (The Road Warrior) Goulet of Victoriaville, Que., finishing him off by TKO at 1:23 of the second round.
In the one-two combo, Davis (22-7) stunned Goulet (22-11) with a right hook to the head and then drove his fist into the Quebecer's face, knocking him to the mat.
Welterweight Johny Hendricks (8-0) remained undefeated by winning a close decision over T.J. Grant of Dartmouth, N.S. (15-4).
In the opening round, Grant crumpled Hendricks with a direct kick between the legs, a shot that drew a collective "Ooooh" from the crowd when it was replayed on the big screen.
Grant's foot connected again with Hendricks' private parts in the third round, forcing the ref to pause the fight a second time while the aching Oklahoman regained his composure. The Canadian also lost a point for delivering the second low-blow.
Earlier, Joey (The Mexicutioner) Beltran (12-3) won a blood-spattered, heavyweight slugfest by unanimous decision over Edmonton's Tim (The Thrashing Machine) Hague (10-4) in a bout that energized the Bell Centre crowd.
The pugilists landed heavy punches to each other's faces in a three-round bout that looked more like a street brawl than mixed martial arts.
The return of Edmonton's Jason (The Athlete) MacDonald to the UFC didn't last beyond 2:42 of the first round.
MacDonald (22-13) fell awkwardly on his left leg when he took American John Salter (5-1) to the mat.
The 34-year-old MacDonald, a late addition to the card as an injury replacement, grabbed the fence and grimaced in pain as the referee stopped the fight. White later said that he broke his leg in two places.
In another early fight, a bloodied Yoshiyuki (Zenko) Yoshida showed his remarkable ability to withstand pain, but he still couldn't beat Mike (The Joker) Guymon.
An emotional Guymon (13-3-1), who scored his first UFC victory in the decision over Yoshida (11-5), cried during a post-fight interview in the Octagon. It was the 35-year-old's third UFC fight.
The fighters exchanged numerous strikes in the lively bout, but the third round belonged to Guymon. At one point, he delivered several elbows to Yoshida's bleeding head, which was pinned against a fence post in the cage.
