{"id":720169,"date":"2026-06-07T02:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720169\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T02:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:19:15","slug":"ufc-vegas-118-highlights-iwo-baraniewski-smokes-junior-tafa-with-nasty-leg-kick-tko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720169\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Vegas 118 Highlights! Iwo Baraniewski Smokes Junior Tafa With Nasty Leg Kick TKO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Iwo Baraniewski made easy work out of Junior Tafa earlier tonight (Sat., June 6, 2026) at UFC Vegas 118 live on Paramount+ from inside UFC\u2019s Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, earning a nasty first-round TKO (leg kick and punches) to push his UFC win streak to three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This fight came together on short notice as Baraniewski was originally expected to fight fellow light heavyweight prospect Billy Elekana, but an injury forced a change up. Tafa stepped in having just captured a knockout win over Kevin Christian back in early May. Oddsmakers pegged Baraniewski as a heavy betting favorite and for good reason. The undefeated Polish finisher has looked like a human wrecking ball thus far and Tafa is as hittable as they come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Baraniewski came out a little more measured than previous fights likely due to Tafa\u2019s one-punch knockout power. Instead of rushing in for furious combinations Baraniewski was able to score offense from range and started to damage Tafa\u2019s lead leg with whipping kicks. One eventually hit the perfect spot and Tafa crumbled to the canvas. Baraniewski quickly jumped on top for heavy ground-and-pound before the referee peeled him off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Check out the video highlights below and let us know if this win earns Baraniewski a shot at the top 15:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For complete UFC Vegas 118 results, coverage, and highlights click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/e\/447540\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iwo Baraniewski made easy work out of Junior Tafa earlier tonight (Sat., June 6, 2026) at UFC Vegas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,46234,6656],"class_list":["post-720169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-videos","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}