Melvin Guillard established himself as a top contender in the UFC's stacked lightweight division by finishing Evan Dunham in the first round at UFC Fight for the Troops 2.

Dunham landed with a leg kick early but Guillard landed a hard right hand that drove Dunham to shoot for a single leg. While Dunham was down, Guillard landed some hard hammer fists before Dunham elevated his leg and took him down. Guillard tried to cage walk back to his feet for a while before succeeding. Back on the feet Guillard immediately hurt Dunham with a string of uppercuts. Then a 1-2 dropped Dunham. But the gritty Dunham shot in again, only to eat more right hands to the skull. Then a series of knees from the Thai plum finished Dunham.

Two lightweights on the contender track, Guillard and Dunham both had clear tracks to the title coming into the fight. Despite losing a deeply questionable decision to Sean Sherk at UFC 119, most viewed Dunham as undefeated in the UFC. Guillard went 3-0 in the UFC in 2010.

UFC Fight for the Troops 2 Awards - $30,000 each:

Fight of the Night - Yves Edwards vs. Cody McKenzie
Knockout of the Night - Melvin Guillard
Submission of the Night - Yves Edwards