The UFC held its third event in Macau, China early Saturday morning with UFC Fight Night 48. In the main event, Michael Bisping returned to middleweight title contention with an impressive win over Cung Le, finishing him by TKO in the fourth round.
The undercard began at 6:30 a.m. eastern with the main card starting at 9 a.m. Bisping dominated Le in the standup battle, mixing up his strikes with punches and kicks. "The Count" landed a hard left hand in the second round that closed Le's right eye and then continued using good punching combinations that badly damaged Le's left eye as well.
Bisping opened the fourth round aggressively, pouncing on Le with punches and kicks and then landing a big knee to Le's face that knocked him down. After a couple more punches, the referee stopped the fight 57 seconds into the round and Bisping improved his record to 25-6.
"I took some time off. I had some problems," Bisping said in his post-fight interview. "Came back, didn't go well. This is what I'm capable of and believe me, I'm capable of better. I've had the best camp ever. I want to be world champion. I know I have the tools, but you have to back it up. This is the start of backing it up."
In the co-main event, Tyron Woodley bounced back from a loss to Rory MacDonald in June by defeating Dong Hyun Kim in just 61 seconds. Filling in for the injured Hector Lombard, Woodley dodged a spinning back fist from Kim and landed a perfectly-timed right hand that send the Korean to the canvas.
Woodley landed more punches on the ground before the referee stepped in. After losing to MacDonald in what was considered a top contender fight, this win keeps Woodley in the top-five in the welterweight division.
Both Bisping and Woodley earned $50,000 performance of the night bonuses with their wins.
The other bouts on the main card saw TUF: China winner Zhang Lipeng defeat Brendan O'Reily by unanimous decision and Ning Guangyou defeat Yang Jiangping by unanimous decision to win the featherweight finals of the TUF: China in a fight that was originally scheduled for March.
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