UFC 170 results, photos: Aljamain Sterling hangs on to beat Cody Gibson

LAS VEGAS – Aljamain Sterling took an early career cue from Jon Jones, and displayed flashes of the light heavyweight champion’s influence in his octagon debut.

Sterling, long and lanky like Jones but much smaller at bantamweight, fended off short-notice replacement Cody Gibson with kicks and dominated the majority of ground exchanges to win a unanimous decision.

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 170 event at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Sterling, whom Jones originally invited to New York’s Team BombSquad via Myspace and later moved to Serra-Longo Fight Team, kept Gibson on his toes early with flashy leg attacks. In a striking exchange, he even threw Jones’ trademark spinning elbow attack, though he missed.

Gibson proved a game opponent from the opening bell and battled back in the second frame to win grappling exchanges. Late in the round, he threatened with a guillotine choke and lost it only due to gravity.

Sterling reinvested in the third frame and took the fight to the mat, where he held dominant position and threatened with a D’Arce choke before closing out the fight in position for a rear-naked choke.

“That third round is always a gut check when it’s all tied up one to one and you have five minutes to get it done,” he said. “It’s all about finding that extra something that you didn’t know you had. When I took his back and got my hooks in, I was just thinking rear-naked choke, but my arms were so heavy. I was just focused on maintaining the position.

“It’s always position over submission in that situation because you don’t want to make any mistakes. You want to be exciting for the fans, but you also have to be smart. It’s a balance. Just glad I was able to get the win out there tonight.”

Sterling (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who originally was scheduled to fight Lucas Martins before an injury interceded, moves to 9-0 and makes a successful octagon debut after relinquishing his Cage Fury Fighting Championships belt at 135 pounds. Gibson (11-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC), a Tachi Palace Fights vet, sees a six-fight regional winning streak snapped.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 170 results include:

• Aljamain Sterling def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Zach Makovsky def. Josh Sampo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Erik Koch def. Rafaello Oliveira via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:24
• Ernest Chavez def. Yosdenis Cedeno via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)

For complete coverage of UFC 170, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan and Matt Erickson contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.