The early fights on a U.F.C. card can be sleepy affairs, but for this first appearance at Madison Square Garden, quite a few talents and big names were brought out.
Perhaps the most notable is Khabib Nurmagomedov, the next big thing of mixed martial arts, who brought a 23-0 lifetime record into his bout with Michael Johnson.
The Russian Nurmagomedov took a few early shots from the puncher Johnson, but once he performed his specialty, the takedown, he brutally schooled Johnson with “ground and pound” for the rest of the round. The second round was more of the same, as was the third, and Nurmagomedov eventually got a battered and exhausted Johnson to submit to the “kimura,” a wrist lock.