UFC 206 results: Rustam Khabilov dominates Jason Saggo on ground for fourth straight win

TORONTO – You could almost set your clock to Rustam Khabilov’s takedown attempts, which kept Jason Saggo from building any momentum with his kick-heavy approach.

Saggo (12-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) was forced to hold on and minimize the damage on his back as Khabilov (21-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) landed takedown after takedown en route to a unanimous decision.

The catchweight bout (Khabilov missed the lightweight limit) was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 206 event at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FS1 and a main card on pay-per-view.

The final scores were all 30-27 for Khabilov, who resisted a last-minute armbar attempt to close the fight with a flurry of ground and pound.

Saggo tried to make his mark by putting together combinations in the center of the cage. He instead found an elusive Khabilov that was hard to pin down. Most of his big shots were blocked, and Khabilov circled out of danger whenever it looked like he might be cornered.

Around the two-minute mark of every frame, Khabilov shot for a takedown and got the fight to the mat. Saggo initially used rubber guard to keep his opponent from landing big shots, but as the fight progressed, he found it difficult to secure the position and wound up taking ground and pound.

When he wasn’t dominating from the top, Khabilov looked to land his big right hand and made Saggo pay for a second-round escape with a flurry of punches that scored. He rolled free from a last-second armbar in the third and closed out the fight with another spell of punches.

Khabilov now has won four straight in the octagon while Saggo sees a two-fight streak ended.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 206 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC 206, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s Dann Stupp and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in Toronto.)