What a way to open a pay-per-view card.

In nothing short of a light heavyweight war, Thiago Santos came out throwing bombs from the opening horn en route to a wild second-round knockout of Jimi Manuwa at UFC 231 in Toronto.

Santos (20-6) received nearly as good as he gave thanks to a violent style which succeeded in creating chaos until Manuwa's chin could stand no more.

"That was the strategy -- I came here to show that I can hit hard and that I'm here to stay," Santos said through a translator.

A native of Brazil, the 34-year-old Santos made quite a statement in his 205-pound debut and improved to 7-1 since 2016. Despite missing a series of wild spinning kicks and strikes that opened the door for England's Manuwa to counter and rally, Santos was able to end the fight early in Round 2.

For complete results from UFC 231, please click here

A flurry of hard punches pinned Manuwa against the cage wall. Santos followed with a brutal left uppercut that rocked him before following through with a sweeping left hook to the temple that dropped him.

Referee Todd Anderson quickly waved the fight off at 41 seconds as Santos leaped in for hammer shots.

"It was fun, it was marvelous," Santos said. "I want to make my opponents feel pain until they can't bare it anymore."

Santos opened the fight by jumping all over Manuwa with a trio of hooks that hurt him. But Manuwa proved cagey enough to force the clinch each time he was hurt and rallied to stun Santos at times with his own counter strikes.

The two-way action created a legitimate round-of-the-year contender as both fighters appeared hurt several times.

Manuwa, 38, suffered his third straight defeat with the loss.