Canadian Kyle Prepolek and American Drew Dober went toe-to-toe in Saturday's preliminary bout at UFC Fight Night: De Ridder vs. Allen, with Dober scoring a somewhat controversial TKO victory as the UFC returned to Vancouver for the first time in more than two years.
The pair of lightweights traded punches, kicks, knees and elbows throughout the first two rounds; however, an unintentional low blow from Dober early in the third and final round caused the momentum to change.
Dober received a point deduction due to the severity of the offense, and Prepolets took several minutes to recover before he could continue playing.
Once the fight resumed, Dober increased the pressure and rocked his opponent with several left hands. Prepolec, who was the biggest betting underdog at the entire UFC Vancouver event, was unable to recover and the referee stopped the fight.
Dober has lost two straight KO/TKO fights and three straight overall, while Prepolec is coming off a brief submission loss to Benoit St. Denis in May and has now lost two straight. Prepolec was one of seven Canadians on the 13-fight roster at Rogers Arena and one of two home fighters competing in the prelims.
The other was Calgary's Melissa Croden, who made a strong UFC debut in the tournament's opening bout, stopping Brazil's Tainara Lisboa via TKO in the final minute of their 135-pound bout.
The 34-year-old Canadian used her powerful punches to knock Lisbon down late in the second round and carried that momentum into the final round, where she relentlessly applied pressure and damaged her opponent until she was ultimately stopped at the end of the third round.
Croden improved to 7-2 in mixed martial arts, with all seven of her victories coming by finish. The Canadian is a good addition to the women's bantamweight division.
In other preliminary action, Aori Tsileng knocked out Cody Gibson with a right hand just 21 seconds into the bantamweight bout.
The 32-year-old from Mongolia hasn't fought in 13 months and hasn't won a fight in two years, but his knockout of Gibson was the quickest win of his 39-fight professional career.
Yousri Belgaroui of the Netherlands was the underdog with a third-round TKO win over Russian middleweight Azamat Bekoev. Belgaroui is a former kickboxing star and former opponent of Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya, who is now Pereira's regular training partner. It was Belgarui's first UFC appearance and ended Bekoev's eight-fight winning streak.
Bruno Silva ended his two-fight skid with a submission over fellow flyweight Hyun Sung Park. Silva was stopped by Joshua Wang and Manel Kape in back-to-back bouts, both in the third round, but this time it was Silva who earned the third-round knockout. Park started his professional career 10-0 but has now lost his last two matches.
Stephanie Luciano defeated Ravena Oliveira in a Brazilian strawweight bout. Luciano, 25, lost a split decision to Sam Hughes earlier this year, while Oliveira, 28, fell to 0-2 at the UFC level.
Jorden Santos defeated Danny Barlow by decision in a three-round fight at 185 pounds. Santos bounced back from his March loss to Ozzie Diaz; Barlow has lost two fights in a row after winning his first nine professional fights.
The last time the UFC held an event in Vancouver was UFC 289 in June 2023.
