Ji Yeon Kim stopped Nadia Kassem in the second round with body strikes on the early preliminary card of UFC 243, held at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Sunday, October 6.
In the opening round, Kassem kicked Kim off the glove touch and Kim responded with a left hook to drop “187”. Kassem managed to land a double overtie throw but wasn’t able to capitalise with any significant damage. At the start of round two, Kassem reached out to touch gloves once again but Kim didn’t respond. The South Korean got to work on the feet, landing the cleaner of the pair’s strikes as she pressed forward. At one moment, Kim had Kassem against the fence with a flurry of hard punches and the referee intervened to allow Kassem to put her mouthpiece back in. The two traded blows following, but Kim began to land more significantly once again and finally dropped Kassem with a body shot at 4:59 to end the fight.
Kim, who missed weight by two pounds for the scheduled flyweight bout, earned her second victory by knockout and extends her record to 9-2-2. Kassem, now 5-2, has now been stopped in her last two fights.
In the opening fight of the card, Khalid Taha submitted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Bruno Silva via arm triangle in the third round.
Results (early preliminary card):
- Ji Yeon Kim def. Nadia Kassem via TKO (Body Strikes), Rd 2, 4:59
- Khalid Taha def. Bruno Silva via Submission (Arm Triangle), Rd 3, 3:00
