HOUSTON ALEXANDER was stopped in the first round of his fight with Thiago Silva at UFC 78.

The American received the biggest pop of the night from the 14, 071 crowd at New Jersey's Prudential Centre - but it was young Brazilian star Silva who stole the show.

Despite a great takedown early on from Alexander and a guillotine attempt that followed shortly afterwards, Silva mounted his opponent and began to assert his dominance on the fight.

A double axe handle from Silva dazed Alexander but the Illinois native showed little defence as the Brazilian reigned down a series of blows to his head.

Silva pummelled Alexander with five unanswered blows and the referee was quick to stop the fight and award the victory to the Brazilian after just three minutes and 25 seconds of the opening round.

After the fight, Alexander was honest about his below-par display.

He said: "I'd rate myself a 'C' in that fight.

"But I'm going to continue to work hard and train hard and I just feel sorry for the next guy I'm going to be facing!"

Alexander had spent less than two minutes in the Octagon following explosive first round knockouts of Keith Jardine and Alessio Sakara but had no reply to Silva's impressive jujitsu skills.

He added: "Thiago's a good fighter but I've been in this game long enough to know that things like this happen - it's how you bounce back afterwards.

"I don't want to change anything about my game – me being in the UFC is a dream so I'm going to get right back into the gym.

"I still have my job to do – nothing's going to change."

The TKO victory saw Silva improve his professional record to 12-0.

After the bout he said: "My strategy going in was to fight him for three round, but thanks to God I was able to finish him."