​LAS VEGAS – King Green comes across as the sort of man who doesn’t speak unless his word is solid, so his claim that facing Terrance McKinney was partly personal and mostly about teaching a lesson carried weight. After Green finished McKinney with one second remaining in the opening round at UFC 329, he suggested they had settled their brief feud and planned to hit the town in “Sin City” together to prove it. And based on Green’s social media updates following his TKO win at T-Mobile Arena to open the main card on Saturday, that plan seemed to be in motion.
Green, now 36-17-1 with 17-12-1 in UFC competition, found himself on the receiving end early in the fight as McKinney pressured him and connected with earlier success. The damage showed on Green’s face as the opening minutes unfolded. Yet in the last 30 seconds of that round, Green landed a decisive shot that hurt McKinney, then pressed the attack and forced the stoppage with just one tick left on the clock.
“You’ve got to understand this is at its highest pinnacle,” Green said afterward. “The emotions are high, but you’ve got to be able to be in the fire. You’ve got to keep the emotions high, but you’ve got to control your emotions at the same time. It’s a weird game you’ve got to play. So they’re high. I’m looking at him. He’s looking at me. They’re high, and they’re in the fight. … But I’m just so used to the fire and the way it burns. It is what it is.”
Earlier in the buildup, Green had conveyed disappointment with McKinney for agreeing to the fight in the first place, arguing that they had a handshake deal that McKinney broke so he could be part of a card headlined by Conor McGregor. Green wasn’t convinced that was a legitimate reason to take the matchup and suggested he would have preferred a sense of solidarity instead.
“I’m going to be real: There ain’t too many Black fighters as it is,” Green said. “I’m trying to show him and teach him something like, ‘Bro, we’re supposed to stick together.’ Irish fighters do it. The Mexican fighters do it. But us as Black folks, where we come from and what we’ve been through is just different. It is what it is.”
The win marked Green’s fourth straight victory, following a rough stretch that had him dropping three of four. Now riding a four-fight streak across the past seven months, Green has re-emerged at lightweight, with three stoppage wins in 2026. He even bagged an extra $100,000 performance bonus for finishing McKinney.
That bonus and the victory may have helped Green rationalize the post-fight plan to celebrate with McKinney in Las Vegas, but Green insisted he would rather see his fellow fighter succeed. “I want nothing but good things for him,” Green said. “I’m sorry that we had to do this fight. I told you don’t take the fight, brother. That’s my little bro, and I didn’t want to do this sh*t. I didn’t want to shut his light out. … He did everything right, but I’m unbreakable.”