PHOENIX – Emily Whitmire (4-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) secured the fastest submission in UFC strawweight history, tapping out Alexandra Albu (3-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) in just 61 seconds.

The 115-pound bout opened up the early prelims of today’s UFC on ESPN 1 event at Talking Stick Resort Arena. It streamed on ESPN+ ahead of the rest of the card on ESPN.

Whitmire was quick to attack at the start of the contest, rushing forward with strikes before changing levels and driving Albu to the floor. Albu managed to scramble to guard, and Whitmire backed to her feet. Albu turned to escape, but Whitmire was quick to seize the moment, leaping to the back and getting her hooks in place, instantaneously latching on to the rear-naked choke, as well. Albu did her best to survive in the hold, but she was flattened out, and Whitmire continued to squeeze, adjusting her grip and getting the submission at the 1:01 mark of the opening round.

“I feel amazing,” Whitmire said after the win. “I want to keep the ball rolling as quickly as possible. I had a lot of nerves going into this – I hurt my leg during my last sparing session – so just the fact that I kept my mind together and still came out here and preformed was huge. I trained so hard for 10 weeks leading up to it; I wasn’t going to let anything stop me.”

With the result, Whitmire now owns back-to-back UFC wins, while Albu loses for the first time as a professional.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN 1 results include:

• Emily Whitmire def. Aleksandra Albu via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:01

For complete coverage of UFC on ESPN 1, check out the UFC Events section of the site.