Erik Koch wins UFC debut with 1st-Round Knockout

By Kerry Howley, Community Contributor

NEWARK, N.J. -- Joe Rogan called it “an awesome UFC debut.”

Dana White must have agreed, because he named it “knockout of the night” and slapped an extra $70,000 onto the payout.

Cedar Rapids native Erik Koch left a Newark, New Jersey crowd stunned last night by felling opponent Raphael Assuncao in the first round with a counter right hook no one saw coming. The fight had started slowly, with little contact beyond a couple of blocked high kick from Koch and much shuffling around the cage. “It's a combat sport!” a fan shouted. “The referee can fight better than this!” But after Koch downed the Brazilian Assuncao with a single strike there was only stunned silence until Joe Rogan jumped in to welcome Koch to the UFC.

“What'd you guys think?” Koch asked, and the crowd erupted.

An emotional Koch said he had been working on that punch ever since he started training with Duke Roufus at Roufusport in Milwaukee. 

“It took a while to get my timing down. He was afraid to stand and he was looking for little openings. He ended up playing into my game.”

“A lot of guys go out there and just lumberjack,” Koch said, and described his knockout counterpunch as “a little touch and a turn of the wrist.”

 The fight lasted 2 minutes and thirty-two seconds, which is to say it took Koch slightly longer than his last knockout-a 1:36 win over Californian Francisco Rivera at WEC 52. Koch fairly bounced out of the cage, trailed by Roufus and his teammate, lightweight Anthony Pettis.

Assuncao, a Brazilian who fights out of Atlanta, is a blackbelt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu widely described as a “veteran.” Koch's latest win, his 12th , decisively positions him as a contender in the featherweight division.

“Ralphael Assuncao has never been stopped with strikes, and Erik dusted him off like he was nothing,” said Roufus, “And he's not nothing. He's a great fighter.”

The fight-the very first of the night-was not initially slated to be televised. But it was shown twice, once on Spike before the pay-per-view fights started, after the main event concluded.

It has been a big week for the 22-year old featherweight. He saw Times Square for the first time on Wednesday and met his fighting idol, Mauricio Rua, in the hotel where they were both staying on Thursday. He told Rua, through a translator, of his admiration and watched a grin spread over the Brazilian's face. But in what was perhaps a sign of things to come, Rua lost in the third round of his title fight, while newcomer Koch walked away one of the night's most celebrated fighters.

Koch will spend a couple of days on the East Coast before returning to Milwaukee. He plans to stay in Newark to help see two friends-Cliff Wright and DJ Sykora, both of Cedar Rapids-through Monday's tryouts for The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC's reality television show. He also plans to “hit New York, get some pie, go to Coney Island,” and, eventually “relax.”