Shane Young has proven he belongs in the UFC.
Taking on Rolando Dy, Young demonstrated crisp boxing skills and landed a nasty elbow on his way to a second-round TKO victory.
After making his UFC debut on only one weeks’ notice and losing convincingly to Alex Volkanovski, Young showed what he is capable of when he competes after having a full training camp.
Walking to the octagon draped in the Tino Rangatiratanga flag (Maori flag), Young looked poised to bring the fight to Dy from the opening bell. Once the fight started, Young charged across the cage at his opponent making it be known that he would be the one to press the action. Both fighters had success early landing hard shots as they traded blow for blow.
FISTS FLYING!
A TKO win for @ShaneYoungMMA and New Zealand. 🇳🇿#UFCSingapore pic.twitter.com/ZG2AEgzuhd
— UFC (@ufc) June 23, 2018
Young’s volume and pressure would eventually become too much for Dy who started to fade. Young managed to cut Dy with an elbow above the eye before stunning him with another one later in the second round. After noticing that Dy was hurt, Young proceeded to swarm him with shots to the head and the body. Dy then dropped to the canvas and the ref was forced to intervene with only 20 seconds remaining in the second round.
The win is Young’s first in the UFC and brings his professional record to 12-4. Young trains out of City Kickboxing in Auckland and is one of the rising crop of New Zealand fighters in the UFC that includes Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker.
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