Marquez takes dog fight with Stewart by 2nd-round submission in UFC debut

Julian Marquez kicked off his UFC career with a bang - literally.

The Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series discovery traded bombs with Darren Stewart for a round and change before putting his fellow middleweight away with a front choke in the second stanza at UFC on FOX 26 in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday.

Marquez was initially scheduled to face Vitor Miranda, but was ultimately undeterred by the late opponent change, digging deep to extend his win streak to five with his first career submission.

The pair wasted little time reenacting a game of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, as Stewart initiated the dog fight with wild hooks and pursued takedowns. Marquez valiantly returned as many haymakers as he ate, but ended a frenetic first round with Stewart glued to his back in search of a rear-naked choke.

The pace and Marquez's rebuttals in both the striking and grappling exchanges left Stewart short on gas heading into the second, but that didn't stop him from instigating a fire fight once again. The resilient Marquez soon made him rue his scrappy ways, however, cracking Stewart with a step-in elbow which prompted his foe to shoot for an ill-advised takedown. With Stewart's neck ripe for the squeezing, the UFC debutant slapped on the fight-ending choke, leaving his foe limp on the canvas at the 2:42 mark.

Having been submitted in two straight UFC fights just 35 days apart and defeated in three consecutive overall, Stewart has likely seen the last of the Octagon.