In the lone light heavyweight match-up taking place on the UFC 126 preliminary card, The Ultimate Fighter season 8 contestant Kyle Kingsbury battled former Ring of Combat light heavyweight champion Ricardo Romero. Both men entered the contest on active winning streaks. Kingsbury defeated Razak Al-Hassan and Jared Hamman at UFC 104 and UFC Fight Night 22 respectively while Romero was previously on a five-fight winning streak before defeating Seth Petruzelli in his UFC debut at UFC 116.

While Romero's streak of wins was impressive, it came to an end tonight. Kyle Kingsbury blasted Romero with a heavy straight left after a barrage of knees in the clinch. Romero shot early after throwing a heavy overhand to mask his effort at a takedown, but Kingsbury immediately transitioned to the clinch. An escaping Romero paid for it, hitting the deck at only 0:21 seconds into the first round.

Romero falls to 1-1 in the UFC while Kingsbury extends his current two-fight winning streak to three and should gain some consideration for a bump up into the middle ranks of the division.