Despite the absence of any major star power, the UFC put on a show full of gritty battles and impressive finishes at UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3 at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Wednesday night’s card, headlined by a middleweight bout between Tim Kennedy and late substitution Rafael Natal, told the story of the smaller, often unknown names whose careers escape the notice of all but the hard-core fan base. Instead of pay-per-view shares and title belts, many of the night’s competitors fought to bounce back from disappointing losses while others gained some much needed momentum by securing impressive victories sure to drive them towards more high-stakes bouts.

Yoel Romero, Alexis Davis, Gain Momentum with Consecutive UFC Wins

Yoel Romero

36 year old Yoel Romero (6-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) earned his second straight victory in the UFC with a crushing third round TKO win over Ronny Markes in the third bout of the night’s Fox Sports 1 main card. The Olympic freestyle wrestling silver medalist was, to the surprise of many, taken down in the first round but was able to keep the fight standing for the rest of the bout before dropping Markes with an over-hand right early in the third.

His first UFC victory came in even more devastating fashion in April’s UFC on Fox 6 in which he left Clifford Starks prostrate on the mat after delivering a perfectly timed flying knee before following up with strikes early in the second minute of the first round. To date, all six of his careers wins have come by knockout.

Alexis Davis

The UFC’s women’s division experienced a shakeup and a new perennial contender in Alexis Davis (15-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) after her unanimous decision victory over former United States Marine, Liz Carmouche in the night’s co-main event. Typically known for her prowess in Jiu Jitsu and owner of 7 career submission victories, Davis was content to stand with the veteran scrapper and dominated all three rounds by defending takedowns and battering Carmouche’s lead leg with inside leg kicks. When asked about the repeated leg kicks, which caused the former UFC title challenger to frequently alternate stances later in the fight, Davis alluded to noticing a peculiarity in Carmouche’s stance prior to the fight that would make her susceptible to leg kicks and capitalized on that weakness throughout the match.

The Canadian also took the time during the post fight interviews to express interest in a possible title eliminator out against Cat Zingano who is expected to return from back-to-back knee surgeries in spring of 2014.

Davis is currently on a four fight win streak.

Michael Chiesa, Yancy Medeiros come back from disappointing losses

TUF: Live Winner, Michael Chiesa rebounded from his only career loss at UFC on Fox 8 in his home state of Washington with a submission win over TUF 16 winner Colton Smith (3-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) in the opening bout of the night’s main card. After a back and forth round where both Smith and Chiesa came close to finishing the fight via rear naked, Chiesa implemented a perfectly timed leg sweep that sent Smith crashing down on his head (and neck) before sinking in the final rear naked.

In the post fight presser, the Washington native Chiesa expressed his preference to fight on the road attributed part of his loss to Jorge Masvidal in Seattle, WA to the pressures of fighting in front of his home crowd.

Chiesa was awarded the $50,000 Submission of the Night award and improves to 3-1 in the UFC.

Yancy Medeiros KO’s Veteran Yves Edwards

In the eerily injury-filled UFC 159 event in April, Yancy Medeiros himself received his first career loss against the surging Rustam Khabilov in the first round of what was otherwise an intriguing matchup. After defending a takedown and a brief subsequent scramble midway through the first round, Medeiros pointed to what UFC commentator Joe Rogan assumed to be a glove malfunction and referee Dan Miragliotta quickly called time to assess the situation. It didn’t take long, however, to discover that Medeiros had dislocated his thumb and the fight was ruled a TKO in favor of the Russian, Khabilov.

In the fast paced preliminary bout, Medeiros himself was cracked by the 60 veteran, Edwards before landing a crushing uppercut counter which sent the Bahamas native crashing to the mat. The first round KO was his seventh win by KO/TKO and his first win at lightweight since dropping down from 185 lbs. He is now 10-1 in his professional MMA career and the win represented his first win in the UFC.

Other Notes:

Francisco Rivera’s second round TKO of George Roop and Derek Brunson’s spectacular 48 second head kick to rear naked choke victory were only two of the eight victories by submission or KO on the thirteen fight card.

Rustam Khabilov continues his speedy climb up the lightweight rankings with a unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal. The victory earned him Fight of the Night honors and improved his record to 3-0 in the octagon and 17-1 overall.