Devin Clark used a grinding attack to wear Michael Rodriguez down for 15 minutes to spoil his UFC debut.

Clark (9-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) took a unanimous decision from Rodriguez (9-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with a pair of 30-27 scores and a 29-28 in a fight that saw Rodriguez land some solid shots, but never quite enough.

The light heavyweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC 223 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. It aired on FS1 ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

The fighters clinched up early and Clark dragged Rodriguez to the canvas. Rodriguez didn’t need long to get back to his feet. They stayed tied up for more than a minute, until referee Dan Miragliotta finally broke them up. Two minutes in, Rodriguez fired a heavy low leg kick and took Clark’s legs right out from under him. Soon after, Rodriguez seemed to hurt Clark with punches, but they tied up again.

With 90 seconds left, Rodriguez broke away and tried a kick, then a flying knee. But Clark worked through it and got a takedown in the center of the cage. He kept Rodriguez on the canvas for the rest of the frame and took his back late in the round.

Clark tied up Rodriguez early in the second round and pushed him to the fence. After a warning from Miragliotta to get busy, Rodriguez got some separation, then just missed a spinning attack. Clark looked a little fatigued, but tied Rodriguez up again to keep Rodriguez from being able to keep landing to the body. With two minutes left, Rodriguez landed another hard knee to the body while clinched up, then ate a right hand from Clark, who continued to keep things clinched up.

With 70 seconds left in the second, Rodriguez got out and landed, but Clark landed some heavy punches and put Rodriguez in trouble against the fence. He survived it, but Clark once again tied him up.

Clark ducked under a punch about a minute into the third and Clark took him down. He took his back and landed short punches and used his wrestling to keep grinding Rodriguez down. Clark got another solid takedown midway through the final frame and put Rodriguez on his back.

Clark got back in the win column after a loss this past October and now has won three of his past four. Rodriguez had a four-fight winning streak snapped.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 223 results include:

• Devin Clark def. Mike Rodriguez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

For complete coverage of UFC 223, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan, Mike Bohn and Ken Hathaway contributed to this report on site in Brooklyn.)