Khabib Nurmagomedov's cousin Umar continued his unbeaten run by submitting Brian Kelleher in the first round at UFC 272.
The fight started with Nurmagomedov pushing the pace on Kelleher and showing off some excellent front kicks.
Kelleher was doing a good job of defending the takedown attempts from Nurmagomedov as he pressed him against the fence, but the Russian eventually took the fight to the mat.
He was able to take the back of Kelleher and secure the rear-naked choke as the American tapped out just three minutes into the round.
Khabib and current top lightweight contender Islam Makhachev were in the corner of Umar as they celebrated with him in the cage after the win.
And in his post-fight interview Nurmagodmeov said: "Very happy that I got a win over such a hard opponent, he's a tough guy so I'm very happy with the win."
Nurmagomedov was moving up to 145-pounds after Kelleher filled in on short notice for the injured Kevin Croom, but said he would return to bantamweight for his next bout.
After coming out of the fight unscathed, the Russian also offered to compete on a Fight Night card later this month as he targets a quick turnaround.
Nurmagomedov, who hadn't fought in over a year, made his UFC debut last January and submitted Sergey Morozov to earn a $50,000 bonus.
The 26-year-old's promotional debut was cancelled three times as he pulled out of fights with Morozov and Nathaniel Wood in 2020.
Also on the prelims, Nurmagomedov's teammate Tagir Ulanbekov suffered a controversial loss to UFC veteran Tim Elliott.
Ulanbekov was dropped by a big left hand from Elliott in the first round, but he did a good job of recovering and fighting back until the bell.
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The second round was much closer as both flyweights as Elliott was successfully defending the takedown attempts from Ulanbekov.
A bloody Ulanbekov was close to securing a rear-naked choke in the last minute of the fight, but Elliott survived until the final bell.
The loss was Ulabenkov's first in over three years, winning his last five fights since being narrowly outpointed by Zhalgas Zhumagulov in 2018.
Ulanbekov made his UFC debut two years ago and had already picked up decision wins against Bruno Silva and Allan Nascimento before his loss to Elliott.
