MEXICO CITY – After a slow start in his first round against Alex Nicholson, Sam Alvey found a winning formula for the fight.

Alvey (29-8 MMA, 6-3 UFC) intercepted a stalking Nicholson (7-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) with powerful left hands, shifting the fight’s momentum at the midpoint to capture two of three rounds.

The middleweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 98 event at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the rest of the card on FS1.

The final scorecards were unanimously 29-28 for Alvey, whose work in the second round and third convinced judges he was the better man.

In the opening frame, it was Nicholson in hot pursuit of his smiling opponent, using kicks to attack the body and head. A body shot put Alvey on the defense, and he was unsuccessful using his right hand and uppercut to stop the advance.

A sneaky left hand from Nicholson in the second frame put Alvey on wobbly legs, prompting him to shoot for multiple takedowns. But then Nicholson got a little too greedy chasing for the finish, and Alvey stopped him dead in his tracks with a series of left hands that put him on shaky legs. Over and over, Nicholson walked into the punches, seemingly oblivious to their effect on scorekeepers.

Seeing his opening, Alvey kept his late-round strategy, using his left hand to catch Nicholson over and over again. While Nicholson was slightly better at blocking in the final frame, he wasn’t as successful on the counter.

“(I’m) extremely disappointed with my performance,” Alvey said. “I should have done better. I don’t know if it was the elevation, maybe. I didn’t feel tired, but I didn’t feel my power. I’ll be back.”

Alvey now has won three straight in the UFC while Nicholson drops to 1-2 after a knockout of Devin Clark at UFC Fight Night 91.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 98 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 98, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Fernanda Prates contributed to this report on site in Mexico City.)