Magomed Ankalaev extends winning streak with a dominant win over Thiago Santos

It wasn't the most exciting fight of the night, but Ankalaev used precision striking mixed in with cage control and grappling to defeat Santos via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47) from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. DAZN News had it scored 49-46 for Anklalaev.

For a good part of the contest, Ankalaev and Santos were extremely tentative throughout as they are potent strikers. Unfortunately, their striking outputs were low for a five-round affair.

Except for the end of the second round when Santos dropped Ankalaev, it was an easy night at the office for Ankalaev (. He kept walking Santos down to get his back to the cage and connected on the more significant shots of the fight to extend his winning streak to eight, which is currently the most consecutive wins at light heavyweight. Ankalaev (17-1) feels his current run warrants a crack at the winner of the light heavyweight title fight at UFC 275 between champion Glover Teixeira and Jiří Procházka. 

“I feel that I deserve a title fight,” Ankalaev said to Paul Felder in his post-fight interview. “But of course, it will depend on the UFC, who my next opponent will be, but I feel I deserve a title fight.”

Santos (22-10) has now lost four of his five. 

Here is what happened at UFC Fight Night.