Alvey, Silva score TKOs to highlight UFC Vancouver prelims

Middleweight Bout: Sam Alvey def. Kevin Casey via 2nd-round TKO

A heavy workload seems to bring out the best in Sam Alvey.

In his third fight in just 70 days, Alvey notched another finish with a second-round knockout of Kevin Casey. "Smilin' Sam" dropped Casey twice in the frame, following the second knockdown with heavy punches to the head for the stoppage just seconds before the bell.

In the first, Casey resorted to the clinch in an effort to nullify Alvey's deadly counter right hand, but what sparse offense was generated in the frame belonged to the latter fighter.

All five of Alvey's UFC victories have come by finish. Casey has only won one of his last six fights.

Featherweight Bout: Kyle Bochniak def. Enrique Barzola via split decision

Enrique Barzola was left wondering what went wrong in his first fight since winning season 2 of "The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America."

After three rounds of moderately paced striking, it looked like the 27-year-old Peruvian had done enough to win a decision. Instead, it was opponent Kyle Bochniak who sneaked away with a split scorecard.

Questionable or not, Bochniak picks up his first win in the Octagon after falling to Charles Rosa in his debut last November.

Bochniak was able to avoid taking any serious damage from Barzola, though it did appear that he was being out-struck in the fight. A late takedown may have been enough for him to steal the first round.

Through Rounds 2 and 3, Barzola picked up the pace with lunging uppercuts and risky spinning techniques. Many of those attacks missed, but he kept Bochniak on the back foot for the majority of the bout. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for to sway the judges in Barzola's favor.

Barzola falls to 11-3-1 in his MMA career.

Middleweight Bout: Alessio Di Chirico def. Gareth McLellan via split decision

Fighting with a heavy heart, Alessio Di Chirico had to pull out all the stops to have his hand raised.

Di Chirico, brandishing black tape around his right arm in honor of the victims of the recent earthquake in his native Italy, earned a split decision over Gareth McLellan. The Italian nearly put McLellan away in the second after sweeping his way back to his feet, bloodying him with an elbow and ground-and-pound.

Typical of their weight class, both fighters displayed some prowess in both striking and grappling, but excelled at neither, regularly swapping the upper hand whether on the feet, the ground, or in the clinch. The second-round flurry ultimately earned Di Chirico the nod, as the constant change in where the fight took place had drained both his and McLellan's gas tanks by the final frame.

The decision marks DiChirico's first UFC victory after dropping his debut to Bojan Velickovic, while McLellan, now 1-3 in the promotion, has lost two straight.

Lightweight Bout: Felipe Silva def. Shane Campbell via 1st-round TKO

Felipe Silva lived up to his reputation as a first-round finisher.

The Brazilian didn't waste any time in his UFC debut, blasting Shane Campbell with a body shot and following up with punches on the ground to record a TKO win just 73 seconds into Round 1.

Silva improves his overall MMA record to 8-0, with seven of those wins coming by first-round knockout or submission.

For Campbell, this is likely his last appearance in the Octagon. He is now 1-4 in the UFC after losing for a third straight time.