Once Magomed Ankalaev broke Klidson Farias’ nose in the first round, a message was sent.
Ankalaev (10-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) didn’t make life utterly miserable for Farias (14-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC), but he didn’t give him a ton of room to get much offense going, either, in a unanimous decision win. Ankalaev won the fight with a pair of 30-27 scores and a 29-28.
The light heavyweight bout opened up the main card of today’s UFC on ESPN+ 3 event at O2 arena in Prague, Czech Republic. It streamed on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN 2.
Farias took the center and pushed Ankalaev to the outside early. Ankalaev got inside for a short right hand 30 seconds in, then landed a kick to Farias’ lead leg. Farias drove in looking for a takedown, but settled for a clinch with Ankalaev along the fence.
Farias earned the break with a hard punch and briefly buckled Ankalaev’s legs. They went back to the center, but when Farias tried to get inside, Ankalaev landed a wicked punch and broke Farias’ nose. Farias left his feet for a moment, but popped back up and tried to recover. Ankalaev got a takedown seconds later and went to work on top with intermittent ground-and-pound the rest of the way.
Farias stayed gritty in the second and third rounds, but largely was forced to deal with an Anaklaev that didn’t want to give him much room to operate, especially with the bloody and broken nose. Ankalaev couldn’t find a finish and dealt with a couple moments of rally attempts from Farias in the second, but it was his round fairly clearly. And in the third, Farias couldn’t seem to get anything done to mount a rally.
Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN+ 3 results include:
- Magomed Ankalaev def. Klidson Farias via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Dwight Grant def. Carlo Pedersoli Jr. via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:59
- Chris Fishgold def. Daniel Teymur via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:10
- Gillian Robertson def. Veronica Macedo via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:27
- Damir Hadzovic def. Marco Polo Reyes via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:03
- Ismail Naurdiev def. Michel Prazeres via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Diego Ferreira def. Rustam Khabilov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Damir Ismagulov def. Joel Alvarez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
For complete coverage of UFC on ESPN+ 3, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
