LAS VEGAS – Da’Mon Blackshear and Jose Johnson came out firing powerful punches and kicks at each other in their heavyweight bout Saturday on the pre-card of UFC Vegas 78 at Apex.

It was Blackshear’s ground game that made the difference with a rare win from Twister. The submission, which came at 3:47 in the first round, was only the third win by The Hurricane in UFC history.

“It feels great (to be one of the three to win by submitting The Hurricane),” Blackshear said in the post-fight octagon. “Studying movies is big, like I said. It’s all in the details.”

Chan Sung Jung, also known as the “Korean Zombie”, introduced Leonard Garcia on March 26, 2011 in Seattle. Bryce Mitchell had the other when he pulled it on Matt Sayles, on December 7, 2019, in Washington, DC.

In the opening seconds of the Blackshear-Johnson match, winning by submission seemed like the last thing that could happen. They came out with force and the sound of punches and kicks reverberated across the top.

Blackshear dropped Johnson and promptly got down to business. As they grappled, Johnson threw an elbow into Blackshear, which was the beginning of the end. Blackshear said he knew a tornado could be possible in such a situation, and proved that he knew what he was talking about.

He ties Johnson’s arm and instantly locks up the Hurricane, one of the most painful surrenders. Johnson parlayed to give Blackshear his second UFC win to go 2-1-1 and improve his overall record to 12-5. It was his ninth victory by surrender.

“Yeah, I knew I was in this position — because I saw the movie and I was like, ‘I’m going to get the shit out of this guy,’” Blackshear said. “So when we got into that position, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m prone to an elbow, but if my elbow Elbows, he did, so I took advantage of that.”