Lightweights Nurullo Aliev and Mike Davis faced off early on the UFC Abu Dhabi preliminary card at the Etihad Arena on Saturday.
Aliev, undefeated, had struggled only with activity thus far in his career, fighting infrequently at best the past few years. Davis, who had competed twice in 2025, had been out of action 12 months himself.
The fight opened with an immediate takedown attempt, and Aliev briefly put Davis on his back, though “Beast Boy” was able to quickly return to his feet. That led to a clinch along the fence, with Aliev apparently disinterested in battling the American in the standup realm. Aliev would get his opponent down again, with Davis working his way back up while eating knees to the thigh.
Round two saw Aliev land an early takedown, only to found himself briefly stuck in a Davis triangle. Not for long, and from there, Aliev went to work from inside Davis’s guard. It took a while, but with just over two minutes on the clock, Davis would make it back to the feet. There, he finally got to march forward, firing kicks, though Aliev did answer with his hands, close the distance, and clinch up again. More Aliev control from there.
It was back to the ground early in round three. Davis might have been able to fend off most of Aliev’s attacks, in terms of damage. But spending the bulk of the fight on his back wasn’t about to win him any points with the judges. Aliev’s wrestling was strong enough that he controlled the bulk of all three rounds, working from half-guard for a time in the third. Davis was able to lift him off with a butterfly guard, then scramble out, only to end up being taken back down immediately.
With every round being a mirror of the others, there was little question as to the winner after 15 minutes. Aliev took the unanimous decision, with triplicate 30-27 scores from the judges.
Official Result: Nurullo Aliev def. Mike Davis by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
