Chris Weidman knocks out Mark Munoz at UFC on Fuel

Between MMA fighters Mark Munoz and Baldwin's Chris Weidman, there are seven All-American wrestling honors and one NCAA championship.

So when two wrestlers meet in the UFC's octagon, you can expect a good old fashioned . . . slugfest. More often than not with two high-level wrestlers, it starts with punches.

Or in this case, one elbow. One perfectly timed and devastatingly powerful elbow.

Munoz ducked a fake by Weidman then moved in and wound up for a big right hand. As he opened up to throw that shot, Weidman landed a monstrous elbow flush to the face of Munoz.

Munoz fell to the ground and absorbed several more shots from Weidman before the referee stopped the middleweight bout 1:37 in the second round, giving Weidman his ninth career victory at UFC on Fuel 4 on Wednesday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

"Every time I've had a full training camp, I've gotten a finish, every single time," Weidman said. "Give me a full training camp and I'd love a shot at the man, Anderson Silva. I really think I could do pretty good. So give me a shot, please."

Silva defended his UFC middleweight title last Saturday for a 10th consecutive time, beating Chael Sonnen. That victory left a void for an undisputed No. 1 contender in the 185-pound division, opening the discussion for the Weidman-Munoz winner to get a shot at Silva's title. No announcement from the UFC was made before the fight about that happening, however.

Weidman's last fight in January came on 10 days notice, and he had to drop 32 pounds to get down to 185 to face Demian Maia. He won that fight by unanimous decision, same as he did in his UFC debut in February 2011 against Alessio Sakara. He took that fight on 17 days' notice. The three fights he had full training camps for resulted in finishes -- Jesse Bongfeldt, Tom Lawlor and Munoz.

"Weidman absolutely destroyed him tonight," UFC president Dana White said. "The way that business works is when No. 3 [Munoz] gets beat and No. 2 [Sonnen] gets beat, it's interesting. The 185-pound division just got very interesting, so we'll see what happens."

Weidman (9-0, 5-0 UFC) dominated the first round of the fight as well. He shot in and easily took down Munoz about 30 seconds into the fight. From there, he controlled Munoz (12-3) the entire round, landing a series of short elbows on occasion and going after several submission attempts.

Weidman took Munoz down again 10 seconds into the second round. Munoz made it back to his feet easier this time, but left himself wide open when he attempted that overhand right. The referee stopped the bout 1:37 into the second round. Weidman won the knockout of the night and a $40,000 bonus check.

"That's what happens sometimes," said Munoz, who had a huge gash on his forehead. "He landed that elbow pretty good."

"Longo works that elbow with me all the time, that right elbow, and I never knew if it'd actually be something I do in a fight," Weidman said. "Guess what, it happened."