Marlon Moraes bullied his way to the front of the line of bantamweight contenders Saturday night, crushing Raphael Assuncao with a big right hand, then finishing him with a guillotine choke in the first round of their UFC Fight Night main event in Fortaleza, Brazil.

It is unclear, however, if there will be a title fight waiting for the presumed No. 1 contender.

Though the UFC did not officially proclaim this bout at the Northeast Olympic Training Center to be an eliminator for the right to challenge 135-pound champion TJ Dillashaw, it has been widely assumed -- given that Moraes came in having won three consecutive fights, Assuncao four in a row -- that the winner would be first in line to face the 135-pound champion. However, Dillashaw has been angling to instead fight flyweight titleholder Henry Cejudo, who two weeks ago knocked him out in 32 seconds in Dillashaw's bid to add the 125-pound belt to his trophy case.

After beating Assuncao, Moraes mocked Dillashaw for dabbling in that potential scenario.

"Hey, TJ, I don't know if you deserve to fight with me," he said in an interview inside the Octagon. "After your last performance, my friend, I'm sorry, I may have to take somebody else and let you go down and hunt for the little boys."

Moraes (22-5-1), 30, got Assuncao to tap at the 3-minute, 17-second mark to earn his third straight first-round finish. He has won 17 of his past 18 bouts, the lone defeat during that run being a split-decision loss to Assuncao in their first meeting in 2017. That was the UFC debut for Moraes, a former World Series of Fighting champion.