Medeiros, Lentz, Dober impress on UFC 203 preliminary card

Yancy-Medeiros

Yancy Medeiros, top, chokes Sean Spencer during their lightweight bout at UFC 203 in Cleveland. (David Dermer/AP)

The UFC 203 prelims seemed cursed.

First it was veteran flyweight Ian McCall being removed from the card earlier in the week when his scheduled opponent Ray Borg couldn’t compete due to illness — the second fight in a span of 41 days in which McCall’s opponent has pulled out just days before the fight.

Then on Saturday it was C.B. Dollaway whose fight with Francimar Barroso was pulled after Dollaway suffered a freak injury while riding in a hotel elevator in Cleveland.

Luckily for mixed martial arts fans the fights that managed to remain on the card turned out to be entertaining.

Nik Lentz picked up his second straight win since moving back up to lightweight when he TKO’d Michael McBride in a dominant performance.

Drew Dober welcomed Jason Gonzalez to the UFC with an impressive first-round knockout. It was Dober’s first TKO win since 2010.

Yancy Medeiros, a training pattern of Nick and Nate Diaz dropped Sean Spencer with a kick and quickly locked in a rear-naked choke in the night’s opening bout.

Also on the prelims, Jessica Eye fought in front of her hometown crowd but lost a split decision to Bethe Correia and Brad Tavares earned a split decision over Caio Magalhaes in middleweight action.

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