Damon Jackson (22-4-1) surely brought the action tonight in his bout against a big prospect who was on fire, Pat Sabatini (17-3), who was on a four fight win streak inside the UFC. It was suppose to be a grappling battle of the two featherweight wrestlers, but these kinds of fights usually end up in a striking match, as this one did.
Damon Jackson came into this fight with a little bit of a dark cloud over him due to the loss of his brother, but with his family in attendance he was not going to quit and was fighting for something bigger tonight.
With a quick upkick from Jackson in first he had Sabatini wobbled. He quickly saw this and capitalized with a barrage of punches, then taking him down. Within the mix of the ground-and-pound, Jackson was laying it on Sabatini, Sabatini gave a verbal signal to the judge that he was done just 1:09 into the first round.
Jackson was very emotional post fight crying on the canvas taken it all in. With his mother and two daughters in attendance it was an emotional event for the whole family as they all could be seen crying and rejoicing together in the stands.
He also talked about the loss of his brother and how he was going to keep fighting regardless what happened. It had been one week before the fight he had lost his brother.