THACKERVILLE, Okla. – Valentin Moldavsky continued the strong start to his Bellator career Friday when he used his grappling to overwhelm Javy Ayala en route to a victory at Bellator 239.

Moldavsky (9-1 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) used a takedown-heavy attack for all three rounds to take the wind and the will out of Ayala (11-8 MMA, 6-5 BMMA) and earn a dominant unanimous decision win by scores of 30-25, 30-24 and 30-24

The heavyweight bout opened up the Bellator 239 main card at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. The main card aired on Paramount and streamed on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

There was little feeling out process from Moldavsky to start the fight. He immediately initiated a grappling situation and got himself on top of Ayala within the first minute. Ayala found his way back to his feet, but was quickly taken down again. Moldavsky moved to the arm-triangle choke position and nearly finished the fight, but Ayala somehow escaped and got back to his feet. From there, it was a relentless onslaught of trips and takedowns from Moldavsky, who seemingly was willing to let his opponent get up only to slam him back to the ground again. Somehow, though, Ayala lasted the round.

It was more of the same in the second frame. Ayala couldn’t create enough space to keep Moldavsky away from him, and he ended up being tossed to the ground over and over. Ayala tried valiantly to keep his back off the canvas, but his efforts were futile as Moldavsky stayed true to his strategy and dominated in the grappling positions. There was no offense mustered by Ayala, but again, he managed to make it to the end of the round.

In need of a critical swing in momentum to get back in the fight, Ayala came out in the third round as much urgency as he could after getting beaten down for 10 minutes. Moldavsky was having none of it, though, because he tied his opponent up and dragged him down to the canvas. Moldavsky worked for chokes and attacked with ground-and-pound, but Ayala squirmed just enough to avoid getting stopped, surviving until the final bell.

The result at the end was clear, though, and that was a lopsided victory for Moldavsky, who remains unbeaten dating back to his only loss, a split decision against Amir Aliakbari under the Rizin FF banner in December 2016.

Up-to-the-minute Bellator 239 results include:

• Valentin Moldavsky def. Javy Ayala via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-24, 30-24)
• Grant Neal def. Claude Wilcox via TKO (punches) — Round 2, 3:37
• Josh Hill def. Vinicius Zani via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Solo Hatley Jr. def. Gaston Bolanos via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
• Denise Kielholtz def. Kristina Williams via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 2:15
• Teejay Britton def. Gabriel Varga via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Keith Lee def. Shawn Bunch via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 39-27)
• Christian Edwards def. Marco Hutch via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-25)