Dustin Poirier cemented himself as a legitimate title contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s lightweight division, with a little help from the rulebook.

“The Diamond” extended his winning streak to three fights, as he cut down former UFC and Bellator MMA lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez with punches in the second round of their UFC on Fox 30 headliner on July 28 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta. In the follow-up to their memorable but anticlimactic UFC 211 encounter a little more than a year ago, Alvarez succumbed to blows 4:05 into Round 2.

Again, their battle was not without controversy. Alvarez scrambled to the Lafayette, Louisiana, native’s back in the second round and secured a neck crank before taking a seated position in full mount at the base of the cage. An ill-advised 12-to-6 elbow to the shoulder cost Alvarez his dominant spot and necessitated a letter-of-the-law warning from referee Marc Goddard. Poirier let go with a blistering kitchen-sink salvo after the restart that left his counterpart in a compromised state and necessitated the stoppage. While the debate regarding Goddard’s decision rages on, the result stands and moves Poirier to No. 3 in the latest Sherdog.com lightweight rankings. Alvarez, now 4-3 with one no-contest in seven UFC appearances, falls to No. 5.

Poirier was not the only mover and shaker at UFC on Fox 30. Resurgent flyweight contender Dustin Ortiz blew away Matheus Nicolau Pereira with a head kick and follow-up punches in the first round of their undercard pairing. On the strength of consecutive victories over Pereira, Alexandre Pantoja and Hector Sandoval, the 29-year-old Ortiz returns to the Top 10 at 125 pounds.

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