Nursulton Ruziboev VS Andrey Pulyaev

Nursulton Ruziboev submitted Andrey Pulyaev via rear-naked choke at 3:58 of the first round in their middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs. Torres in Baku, Azerbaijan. Ruziboev caught a Pulyaev kick early in the round and used it to take his opponent to the canvas, where Pulyaev was never able to regain his feet. From back control, Ruziboev chipped away with short shots until Pulyaev's defensive reaction created the opening for the choke, and he squeezed until Pulyaev went limp. The victory was Ruziboev's first since returning from knee surgery that had kept him sidelined for more than 400 days, and it pushed his perfect UFC record to 5-0 at middleweight with four finishes.

Nursulton Ruziboev, a 6-foot-5 Uzbek grappler with 20 submission wins from 49 professional fights, takes on Andrey Pulyaev, a tall Russian southpaw kickboxer who earned his UFC contract on the Contender Series and went 1-2 in his first three UFC appearances. Ruziboev brings a massive experience and submission volume advantage while Pulyaev, trained under Alexander Shlemenko's camp, carries genuine striking quality and the length to make the Uzbek uncomfortable on the feet — making this a classic grappler-versus-striker puzzle on a stacked Baku prelim card.