Former Bellator MMA heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov improved to 2-0 in the UFC after beating fan favourite Roy Nelson in the featured preliminary bout at a UFC Fight Night event in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday.
The 6-foot-7 Volkov used his reach advantage and a patient game plan to outpoint the six-foot Nelson en route to a unanimous decision. Nelson was able to land some heavy shots on the Russian but nothing to end the fight.
Nelson, 40, has just three wins in his past nine fights dating back to 2013.
Also on the prelims, Tom Duquesnoy wowed fans in his UFC debut. The 23-year-old native of France is considered the best European MMA prospect since Conor McGregor.
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If you love fast-paced grappling exchanges and high-level scrambles then flyweights Tim Elliott and Louis Smolka gave you quite the show. Elliott handed Smolka his third consecutive loss by taking a unanimous decision.
At bantamweight, Aljamain Sterling snapped a two-fight losing streak with a victory over Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Augusto Mendes. All three judges scored the bout 29-28 for Sterling.
Anthony Smith picked up an impressive come-from-behind victory over TUF 23 winner Andrew Sanchez. Smith said after the bout Sanchez was much tougher on the feet than he had anticipated. Sanchez had controlled the majority of the first two round but Smith avoided going to the scorecards by placing a knee on Sanchez’s chin while throwing a head kick late in the third round.
Zak Cummings, who fights out of Kansas City, set the hometown crowd ablaze early with a dominant performance against Nathan Coy in the secon bout of the night. Cummings (21-5) improved to 6-2 in the UFC by choking Coy unconscious.
Here are the full results from the UFC Kansas City prelims:
— Alexander Volkov def. Roy Nelson by unanimous decision
— Tom DuQuesnoy def. Patrick Williams by TKO
— Rashid Magomedov def. Bobby Green by split decision
— Tim Elliott def. Louis Smolka by unanimous decision
— Aljamain Sterling def. Augusto Mendes by unanimous decision
— Devin Clark def. Jake Collier by unanimous decision
— Anthony Smith def. Andrew Sanchez by TKO
— Zak Cummings def. Nathan Coy by submission
— Ketlen Vieira def. Ashlee Evans-Smith by unanimous decision
