Andre Petroski came into the Meta APEX on Saturday as the underdog and left with his first finish in more than four years, stopping Mantas Kondratavicius with ground strikes at 4:39 of Round 2 on the prelims of UFC Vegas 124 in Las Vegas.
The first five minutes belonged to Kondratavicius. According to MMA Junkie’s account of the bout, the Lithuania-born middleweight chose his shots well and landed combinations that did real damage, and for stretches it looked like the oddsmakers had read the matchup correctly. Petroski’s camp saw it differently. MMA Junkie reported that Petroski and his team expected the opening round to be Kondratavicius’ best of the night, and that is how it played out. In Round 2, Petroski got the fight to the canvas and never let it back up. He took his time settling into position, then opened up with ground-and-pound until the referee waved it off. The UFC’s Paramount+ account posted the finish on X under the line “All pressure from Petroski,” which is about as accurate a two-word scouting report as you’ll find.
UFC.com later published Petroski’s post-fight interview from the card, which was headlined by Cortes Acosta vs. Walker.
Where both men stand
The win moves Petroski to 14-6 overall and 9-5 in the UFC, and it snaps a three-fight losing streak that had started to define him. It’s also his first stoppage since he submitted Nick Maximov in May 2022, a long gap for a fighter whose wrestling has always been his calling card.
Kondratavicius drops to 9-2 overall and 1-1 in the promotion. He debuted in March with a decision over Antonio Trocoli, and that single UFC win, plus the striking he showed in Round 1 here, was enough for the books to make him the favorite against a veteran with 14 fights inside the Octagon.
No next opponent for either man was mentioned in the coverage of the result.
Elsewhere on the prelims, Seokhyeon Ko took a unanimous decision over Wellington Turman (30-27, 30-27, 30-27), and Jose Souza knocked out Jonny Parsons with punches at 4:16 of Round 1.
Quick take
I keep coming back to the part where Petroski’s corner called the shape of the fight before it happened. Coaches rarely get the credit for these, but surviving a round you’ve been told will be the worst one is a lot easier when somebody has already told you it’s coming and that it ends. Kondratavicius has real hands and he’s going to win more fights, though a 1-0 UFC record was never much of a reason to install him over a guy with nine wins on this roster. He now has a very specific homework assignment, which is the five minutes after a clean first round, when a wrestler who has been eating shots decides it’s his turn.
