Best and worst from UFC Fight Night 159: Rodriguez vs. Stephens

#3 Best: Exciting finishes highlight the undercard

Kyle Nelson's finish of Polo Reyes was a highlight-worthy moment

After some shows with largely dull prelim fights, last night’s undercard delivered massively thanks to a pair of nasty finishes to go along with Paul Craig’s highlight-worthy submission of Vinicius Moreira.

Massive kudos to both Angela Hill and Kyle Nelson for pulling these finishes out to light up the Mexican crowd.

Firstly it was Hill – who’d never finished an opponent in the Octagon despite picking up three previous victories. It appeared that trend would continue as she went into the third round of her fight with Ariane Carnelossi with a clear two-round lead, but this time ‘Overkill’ kept pressing and eventually unleashed a slashing elbow that sliced her opponent open.

The doctors took one look at the cut and waved off the fight, awarding Hill her first-ever UFC stoppage.

Nelson meanwhile was coming off a pair of pretty bad performances in his first two Octagon appearances, meaning he was likely to be cut with a loss, and faced against the tough brawler Polo Reyes it was hard to see him finding success.

Instead, he surprised everyone with pouring on the aggression, hurting Reyes with a standing elbow before leaving him out on his feet with a ferocious follow-up combination.

Will either finish be remembered come the end of 2019? Probably not, but for both Hill and Nelson, the stoppages likely mean a hell of a lot more – and they were both hugely entertaining, so how can you complain?