The Hardest-Hitting Moments from the UFC 246 Preliminary Card

Conor McGregor returned to action at UFC 246 on Saturday night against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, but that headliner and the other four fights on the main card pay-per-view event weren't the only huge things that happened.

In fact, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was jam-packed with six preliminary bouts. Bleacher Report scoured that action to find the best punches, kicks and more that landed before the start of the first big UFC PPV of 2020.

Dober's Perfect Counterpunch Dooms Haqparast

Most onlookers didn't expect veteran lightweight Drew Dober to defeat highly regarded prospect Nasrat Haqparast, but he did better than simply nabbing the important win over the rising phenom. 

Dober finished him. 

It was a picture-perfect left-hand counterpunch right down the middle that put Haqparast flat on the mat, and more hard left hands raining from above netted Dober the stoppage victory in Round 1.

Yusuff Shows His Mettle Against a Game Fili

Featherweight prospect Sodiq Yusuff showed why everyone is so excited about the 26-year-old. He overwhelmed a game Andre Fili by stunning the 29-year-old in the first round with heavy punches and dominating him for the rest of the fight. 

But the action was hot and heavy right from the beginning. Yusuff was coming forward and throwing potential fight-ending shots with each strike, while Fili was returning the same and shooting for takedowns. 

Yusuff took control after the first half of Round 1, and even when the Nigeria native cooled down in the third after likely knowing he was ahead on the judges' scorecards, there wasn't much left for Fili to do to turn things back in his favor. 

In the end, Yusuff's dominant unanimous-decision win (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) showed the No. 14-ranked featherweight's incredibly high ceiling. He's one to watch in the 145-pound division. 

'The Future' Is Not Now

Previously unbeaten women's flyweight phenom Maycee Barber calls herself The Future. Most everyone else has been doing that too. But it was 37-year-old veteran Roxanne Modafferi who scored the unanimous-decision victory (30-27, 30-27, 30-26) over Barber in one of the biggest UFC upsets in recent history.

Barber's power jab from a southpaw stance started her night in the right way. But Modafferi countered with volume punching and soon found the opportunity for the takedown. That's something that had never happened to Barber before in her eight-bout MMA career, but she soon found it to be her new normal. 

The biggest moment in the fight happened at the beginning of the second round. Modafferi landed a glancing jab and Barber's knee buckled, and the 21-year-old appeared to be injured throughout the rest of the contest. 

Modafferi used the opportunity to focus on grappling but couldn't find a way to get the better of the action. 

A huge elbow by Modafferi in the second round opened a cut on Barber that spilled blood for the rest of the bout. Still, Barber's resiliency kept her in the fight. Even when the ringside physician examined her knee between the second and third rounds and called the injury a partially torn ACL, she refused to yield. Barber grimaced in pain but came out for the final five minutes anyway.

Round 3 was all Modafferi. She must have known she was on her way to scoring the epic upset, and Barber just didn't have the use of both legs. Modafferi dominated Round 3 after executing another takedown and went on to score the massive win.

Still, Barber was all class in defeat. She was even the first to congratulate Modafferi during the post-fight interview: 

In the end, Barber might still be the future of the sport, but Modafferi proved without doubt her own career is not yet the past.