UFC Fight Night 126 results: Alex Morono taps out Josh Burkman, calls out Diego Sanchez

In a fight in front of his home-state fans, against a fighter he says he grew up watching, Alex Morono lived up to his early hype and kept Josh Burkman struggling.

Morono (14-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC), the heaviest favorite on the card, stopped Burkman (28-17 MMA, 6-12 UFC) with a first-round guillotine choke. The end came at the 2:21 mark of the round. Then Morono called out “TUF 1” winner Diego Sanchez.

The welterweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 126 event at Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the rest of the card on FS1.

Morono started with leg kicks early, and a minute in, he landed a kick to Burkman’s lead left leg that nearly took him coimpletely off his feet. Twenty seconds later, another massive swat at Burkman’s leg left him immediately switching stances.

Morono seemed to sense Burkman was hurt, but he stayed patient. He swung with a big right hand that just missed. But a left hand right on top of it clipped Burkman right on the chin and put him on the canvas. From there, Morono really went to work.

Morono quickly moved to the canvas, grabbed Burkman’s neck and jumped to guard. He squeezed on the guillotine choke, and it was tight. A few seconds later, Burkman had to tap.

“I started training and in martial arts because I was a fan of the UFC,” Morono said. “My life’s goal was to get a finish in the octagon, and I did that tonight. It was awesome. Fighting Burkman was awesome. He is a legend. I’m a fan. I fought (Kyle) Noke, (Keita) Nakamura, Burkman – Diego Sanchez is fighting at wleterweight. Diego, it would be a dream come true if we could shed blood in this octagon. Diego, if you want the fight, I’m ready.”

Morono got back in the win column after dropping a split decision to Nakamura in September at UFC Fight Night 117. Burkman lost for the fifth straight time and has dropped seven of his past eight fights

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 126 results include:

• Alex Morono def. Josh Burkman via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 2:21
• Oskar Piechota def. Tim Williams via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:54

For complete covearge of UFC Fight Night 126, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in Austin.)