Germaine de Randamie scores 16-second TKO vs. Aspen Ladd at UFC Sacramento

Former featherweight titlist Germaine de Randamie scored a quick and brutal TKO over Aspen Ladd in the UFC Sacramento’s main event Saturday night. The end came 16 seconds into the first round.

Ladd moved toward de Randamie in the opening moments of the bout with quick head movement and a high guard. The young contender soon dropped her left hand to throw a punch, however, giving de Randamie an opening to throw and connect with a thudding overhand right directly to the jaw.

Ladd’s head snapped to the right and her whole body immediately stiffened as she fell slowly to the mat. De Randamie followed up with a left punch as Ladd faced downward on her hands and knees.

The punch hit Ladd in the torso and spun her to face de Randamie, at which point referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the contest. Ladd’s TKO loss comes immediately after an apparently brutal and dangerous weight-cut the day before, where she shook and grimaced, appearing near tears while stepping on the scale nude after sucking necessary water from her body, including around her brain to make the bantamweight limit.

The California crowd booed de Randamie as she was interviewed, after the fight. “I understand, Sacramento, I understand,” she said, and then smiled.

“I dropped her. She didn’t know where she was in the moment. I think it was a good stoppage.”

A stoic Ladd commented on the stoppage, later. “[The referee] did what he thought was best,” she said.

“I felt fine but I can’t judge these things.”

The loss is the first of Ladd’s professional career, dipping her to 8-1. The win is the Dutch kickboxer’s fifth-straight, and she improves her mark to 9-3.

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