UFC Fight Island 3: Bonus Coverage

Canada’s Tanner Boser continued his successful summer as he tallied his second knockout within a month, taking out Raphael Pessoa in the second round. 

Boser kept to his usual movement-heavy, measured approach in the first round, attacking Pessoa from the outside and exiting before getting countered. In the second frame, Boser threw a jab to the body followed by an overhand left that caught Pessoa on the eye, stunning the Brazilian. Pessoa crumbled, and Boser poured on the pressure until Herb Dean stopped the fight. It was another assertive and impressive performance from Boser, who is looking more and more like a real prospect in the heavyweight division.

Tom Aspinall made quick work of his UFC debut, knocking out Jake Collier in just 45 seconds. 

Liverpool’s Aspinall looked steady and calm as the bout started, and it wasn’t long before he strung together a knee to Collier’s body followed by a pair of punches that ended the bout. In a division always looking for up-and-comers, Aspinall certainly announced himself as someone to pay attention to.

Jesse Ronson returned to the Octagon after six years away, stepping up to 170 pounds and submitting Nicolas Dalby in the first round. 

Dalby started quickly, pressuring Ronson with heavy shots, but Ronson soon found his timing and dropped Dalby with a left hand. Ronson pounced on Dalby and sunk in a rear naked choke midway through the second round.

Potentially the biggest winner of Fight Island - figuratively and, by securing his second win in 10 days, literally – Khamzat Chimaev stole the show once again, stopping UFC debutant Rhys McKee in the first round. Chimaev broke the UFC record for fewest days between both appearances and wins, and his encore might’ve been more impressive than his first win, which came over John Phillips.

As the first round began, Chimaev asserted himself physically and took McKee down to the mat. He overwhelmed his foe, dropping heavy ground-and-pound and showing his ability to negate any sort of attempts to get up from McKee. Three minutes into the first frame, Chimaev mounted McKee and continued to rain down strikes until the ref stopped the bout. 

Chimaev not only dominated, but McKee failed to register a single strike against Fight Island’s breakout fighter. It was the kind of dominant display that caught the eyes of every fighter and fan alike.

The Scottish king of the comeback, Paul Craig instead decided to get his work done early this time, getting his signature triangle submission a couple minutes into the first round.

Craig conceded a takedown from Gadzhimurad Antigulov and immediately started fishing for submissions off his back. After weathering a few heavy shots from Antigulov, Craig whipped his legs up and locked in a triangle choke, tapping his foe soon after. 

With the submission – Craig’s fifth in the Octagon – he tied Jon Jones, Misha Cirkunov, Ovince Saint Preux, and Glover Teixeira for most submission wins in UFC light heavyweight history.  

While a lot of the excitement heading into Fabricio Werdum’s bout with Alexander Gustafsson came from the mystery around how Gustafsson would look at heavyweight, it was the Brazilian who spoiled the party, submitting Gustafsson in the first round. 

After playing a little on the feet, Werdum sold out for a takedown a couple minutes into the first round. Gustafsson defended well at first and gave Werdum heavy hammerfists for his trouble, but Werdum used the window of opportunity to continue driving for a submission. Soon, he targeted Gustafsson’s arm, and after some persistence, he wrenched Gustafsson’s arm away and got the armbar submission midway through the first round.