UFC Fight Night 31 results, photos: Derek Brunson taps Brian Houston after kick

FORT CAMPBELL – After a lackluster octagon debut, Derek Brunson needed an impressive performance to boost his stock.

A head kick and 48-second rear-naked choke of newcomer Brian Houston delivered that quite nicely.

The middleweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 31 event at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. It streamed on MMAjunkie.com ahead of the additional prelims and a main card on FOX Sports 1.

Houston barely got a chance to get in the fight before Brunson slapped him upside the head with a left high kick. Wobbled, he dropped to the mat, and the eager Brunson moved in for the finish.

Taking Houston’s back, Brunson secured a choke with his arms and then put his legs in position as his opponent tried in vain to roll out of danger. The tapout came at the 0:48 mark of the first frame.

“When I landed that head kick, I just kept thinking, ‘I need to finish this fight,’” Brunson said. “I sunk in the rear-naked choke and I wasn’t going to let it go for anything. This is exactly how I envisioned the fight going.”

Brunson (11-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC), a Strikeforce veteran, now owns back-to-back UFC wins, while Houston (4-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) suffers his first professional loss in five fights.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 31 results include:

• Derek Brunson def. Brian Houston via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 0:48

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 31, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

Dann Stupp contributed to this report on-site at Fort Campbell.