Israel Adesanya spent the early part of the opening round fending off Derek Brunson’s takedowns and throwing out the occasional obscene gesture in response to a couple illegal shorts grabs. Then, once he’d had a chance to settle in, Adesanya really got to work.

A few moments later, Brunson was laid out on the mat by Adesanya, a victim of a TKO stoppage at the 4:51 mark of Round 1.

The middleweight bout kicked off the pay-per-view portion of UFC 230 from Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night. The preliminary portion of the card aired on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

“This was like a walk in the park,” Adesanya said, before catching himself. “Eh, this was like a walk in the garden.”

It was a well timed knee from Adesanya (15-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) that really put Brunson (18-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in trouble. After Adesanya had fended off multiple takedown attempts to start the opening frame, he settled into his striking game and caught Brunson diving in for a leg, bringing his knee up just in time to sting Brunson and rob him of his equilibrium.

Brunson never got a chance to fully recover from that shot, as Adesanya added a head kick and some slick counter-punching, keeping the pressure on Brunson but without rushing in recklessly or getting close enough for Brunson to grab on and clear his head.

After dropping Brunson several times in the span of a few seconds, Adesanya finally landed one short punch that wobbled Brunson again in the waning seconds of the round, and that was enough to convince referee Herb Dean to step in and call it off.

With the win, Adesanya stays unbeaten in his professional MMA career, earning a first-round stoppage for the first time in his stay with the UFC. Brunson has now lost two straight.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 230 results include:

• Israel Adesanya def. Derek Brunson via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:51
• Jordan Rinaldi def. Jason Knight via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 30-26)
• Sijara Eubanks def. Roxanne Modafferi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Sheymon Moraes def. Julio Arce via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-26)
• Lyman Good def. Ben Saunders via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:32
• Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata – majority draw (29-28, 28-28, 28-28)
• Shane Burgos def. Kurt Holobaugh via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 2:11
• Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Adam Wieczorek via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

For complete coverage of UFC 230, check out the UFC Events section of the site.