The recently retired Paul Craig scored the best — and most surprising — win of his UFC career early on.
Back in March 2018, Craig was still a relative newcomer to the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division. After opening his Octagon career with an armbar victory, Craig would lose consecutive fights to Tyson Pedro and Khalil Rountree. The pressure was high ahead of his fourth UFC bout, the last match up of his first contract with the promotion.
He was matched up with some 8-0 nobody named Magomed Ankalaev … a man also known as “Big Ank,” the current 205-pound champion of the world, scheduled to face Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 320 this Saturday (Oct. 4, 2025) from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ankalaev took it to Craig early in their fight, showing off his wealth of Combat Sambo experience. He beat up Craig on the feet and on the canvas for a vast majority of the fight, pummeling the Scottish submission fighter for a long while. Back then, Ankalaev was more well-known for his ground-and-pound than boxing, and “Bearjew” learned of his ground striking aptitude the hard way.
However, at the literal last second, Craig wrapped up a triangle choke submission and forced his foe to submit (watch here). It was the first loss of Ankalaev’s professional career, and seven years later, Craig remains the only man to defeat Ankalaev. The legendary win came at a heavy physical cost though, one Craig recently discussed with Tom Aspinall.
“For almost 14 minutes, he imposed his will on me,” Craig explained. “He was very explosive, very strong. I remember at one point, he picked me up in a wrestling takedown and he sat me down like a father laying down a baby. I remember [thinking], ‘I can’t do anything about this!‘
“One of the hardest opponents I’ve ever had to face. He had a hole in my jaw underneath my chin where he had clocked me. He fractured ribs. He basically beat me up and for the next two days, I couldn’t walk because he destroyed my legs, destroyed my arms. But, for that one saving submission — so special to me, that one moment. That was the last point in my career where I potentially wasn’t going to be a fighter for the UFC, fast-forward eight years later and I was still there.”
After the shocking defeat, Ankalaev nearly walked away from the sport. He did, of course, return to action, but there were side effects. Ever since that loss, Ankalaev has largely preferred to strike with his opponents, so perhaps Craig’s influence is still lingering. Alex Pereira isn’t much of a submission threat though, so maybe in this rematch we see the return of Ankalaev’s punishing ground-and-pound.