TUF 19 Finale results, photos: Robert Drysdale chokes out Keith Berish in first

LAS VEGAS – It was a long time coming, but Robert Drysdale‘s UFC debut was just as impressive as he could have hoped for.

Drysdale (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a Las Vegas resident and world-class jiu-jitsu player, tapped out Keith Berish (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in the first round with a rear-naked choke. For Berish, the tap was insult to injury as he appeared to badly hurt his knee while falling to the ground with Drysdale draped on his back.

The light heavyweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s TUF 19 Finale event at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims and a main card on FOX Sports 1.

Drysdale threw a front kick early, followed by a overhand right. Then he repeated the pattern before shooting in for a fairly easy takedown along the fence just 30 seconds in.

He quickly worked toward Berish’s back, looking to put his ground skills to work. He took it with ease and went after the rear-naked choke. Berish defended for a time, then worked back to his feet.

But Drysdale stayed on him on the feet, and when he fell backward to the canvas, Berish’s left leg bent awkwardly beneath him, likely doing some damage to his knee. Seconds later, Berish was quick to tap out at the 2:03 mark of the first.

“I’ve been preparing for this day my entire life. I’m just glad to be here. It’s an honor,” Drysdale said. “I fight for my own personal reasons. I love the crowd, but the pressure I put on myself is myself. It doesn’t matter where I am.”

Berish said the knee injury played a major factor in why he had to tap.

“The tap was forced more from what happened to my knee than the choke,” he said. “It was an awkward fall and I obviously have done some damage. The choke wasn’t fully locked in – it was around my chin, but he had the body triangle and all of his weight was pushing on my knee. I was in a bad spot there, but felt confident I could have otherwise worked out of that position and back onto my feet.”

Drysdale stayed unbeaten as a pro with the victory in his first fight in more than a year. A pair of previous attempts at a UFC debut were scrapped. Berish, a Ring of Combat veteran, suffered the first loss of his career.

Up-to-the-minute TUF 19 Finale results include:

• Robert Drysdale def. Keith Berish via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:03

For complete coverage of The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

(John Morgan, Matt Erickson and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.)