ALBANY, N.Y. – After his UFC debut was twice delayed, Ryan Janes wouldn’t let a few hard right hands stop him from chasing down victory.

Janes (9-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) waded through Keith Berish’s (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) power punches and wore him out over three rounds to secure a unanimous decision.

The middleweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 102 event at Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

The final scores were all 29-28 for Janes, whose first appearance in the octagon was delayed by a potential anti-doping violation and then the wholesale cancelation of an event.

The victory was even sweeter for Janes considering the toughness he showed against Berish, whose own debut was affected by an anti-doping violation.

Although the newcomer had height and reach on his opponent, he walked into several hard counters that might have dropped other fighters. For every punch Berish landed, Janes responded with two, attacking the legs in the interim.

Berish had an experience advantage heading into the bout, but he tired after putting his all into the counters. His mouth hung open as the first frame ended, and he was unable to muster enough force to stop James.

By the third round, Berish resorted to ducking under punches for takedown attempts. He managed to get into position for a rear-naked choke but didn’t have the steam to get into position, allowing Janes to retake top position.

Janes now has won eight straight fights including his successful octagon debut, while Berish goes back to the drawing board after a no-contest against Robert Drysdale in his debut in 2014.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 102 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 102, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s Matt Erickson contributed to this report on site in Albany.)