Devonte Smith announced his return to the cage in emphatic fashion at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Volkov. ‘King Kage’ improved to 11-2 in a catchweight bout against Justin Jaynes, who came in as a late replacement. The finish came via Doctor stoppage after Jaynes’ eye had swollen shut by the end of the second round.
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Devonte Smith has now finished all 11 professional career wins and will look to build up some serious momentum heading through 2021. His performance throughout the fight was comprehensive, and the writing was on the wall for Jaynes, who fell short. However, to his credit, he put on a strong showing, especially when looking at the wrestling-heavy approach used.
Damage done to Justin Jaynes' eye caused the #UFCVegas18 fight to be stopped.
Devonte Smith picked up the second-round TKO. pic.twitter.com/XmAxBnxCgQ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 7, 2021
Justin Jaynes wasn’t too pleased when the referee waved off the fight. However, it’s easy to see why. ‘The Guitar Hero’ had absorbed considerable damage to his eye through a potent mixture of both ground strikes and precision power shots. Chiefly, it was a series of well-placed hammer fists that began the inevitable decline of Jaynes.
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UFC catchweight: Devonte Smith vs Justin Jaynes
‘King Kage’ made his octagon return after a considerable hiatus as he last fought back at UFC 241 in August 2019. There were several questions as to his performance rate coming off an injury. However, he emphatically answered them. Not to mention, he utilized the exposure of being placed as the preliminary card headliner to great effect.
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DENVER, CO – NOVEMBER 10: Devonte Smith celebrates after knocking out Julian Erosa in their lightweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event inside Pepsi Center on November 10, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The fight saw him display a wide range of weapons, but, it was his ability to ground Justin Jaynes that was crucial. Furthermore, he would turn on the pace considerably every time Jaynes would gain any ground on him. Short strikes were the story of the fight, and Smith used to great effect.
Jaynes will have to head back to the drawing board as he’s now on a three-fight skid in the promotion. His last win came in June 2020 against Frank Camacho, and he’s been finished consecutively in his following three fights. The UFC will probably cut him some slack considering he did them a favor by accepting a short notice booking. However, it will be imperative that he finds his way back to the win column soon.
