UFC 167 results, photos, gifs: Perfect timing gets Gian Villante TKO win over Cody Donovan

LAS VEGAS – Short-notice replacement Gian Villante made the most of his opportunity against Cody Donovan and picked up his first octagon win.

After a back-and-forth opening round, Villante rocked Donovan with a punch that led to a second-round TKO.

The light heavyweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC 167 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It streamed on MMAjunkie ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and a main card on pay-per-view.

Villante, who replaced Robert Drysdale when he was not cleared to fight, showed no hesitancy in mixing it up early with Donovan. The two fought in the clinch, but in the center of the cage, it was Donovan who repeatedly landed an overhand right.

A high kick from Donovan also slammed into the side of Villante’s head, but he managed to continue fighting.

Donovan landed another stiff right hand in the second round, but when he tried to again do damage with a kick, Villante timed a right hook. The shot clipped Donovan in the chin and sent him to the canvas, after which referee Kim Winslow intervened at the 1:22 mark of the frame.

“After the way my last fight ended with the eye poke, it felt so great to get out there and perform even on short notice,” Villante said. “You don’t want to be that guy that looks back at his career 20 years from now and says that he never got a win in the UFC. I feel like that pressure is off my shoulders now. Coming in on 18 days’ notice, I thought I could be sluggish in there – but I wasn’t.”

Villante (11-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC), whose UFC debut was soiled by an accidental eyepoke that led to a TKO loss against Ovince St. Preux, gets back on the winning track, while Donovan (8-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC) now has lost back-to-back fights inside the octagon.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 167 results include:

• Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:22

For complete coverage of UFC 167, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.