Mads Burnell was smothered in his previous fight, so he figured he’d return the favor to his next opponent.

Burnell’s (9-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) takedowns and top control kept Mike Santiago (19-11 MMA, 0-2 UFC) from getting momentum over three rounds, leading to unanimous scorecards of 29-28.

The catchweight bout (Burnell missed the featherweight limit) opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 124 event at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the rest of the card on FS1.

Burnell, who came in heavy for the bout, made no effort to hide his game plan. Only seconds into the bout, he charged across the octagon and took the fight to the mat before trying to catch Santiago napping with a D’Arce choke.

Santiago had the right idea in countering Burnell’s efforts to smother, popping to his feet and repaying a subsequent takedown with an elbow to the side of the head. The shot briefly turned the tables and put him on top. Burnell tried a low-percentage kneebar and took shots from the bottom before giving up a takedown at the end of the frame.

But as the fight wore on, Santiago’s guile was worn down by his opponent’s relentless attack. He managed to sneak in a nice knee to the body and another hard elbow in opposition to a takedown, only to fight off a rear-naked choke when Burnell redoubled his efforts.

Seeing a clear path to victory, Burnell got the fight to the mat early in the final frame and grinded out Santiago, who had just enough energy to get back to his feet. The trip was short lived.

“I am very happy to have my first UFC win,” Burnell said. “My respect to Santiago – he is a true warrior, and it was a tough fight. Wrestling was the key to success tonight. I felt a lot heavier than he did and used that to my advantage. Now that I have my first UFC win, I want to keep improving and I will finish whoever is next for me.”

Burnell now gets back to the win column after a defeat against ground and pound specialist Michel Prazeres, while Santiago remains winless in the UFC after a submission loss to Zabit Magomedsharipov in his octagon debut.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 124 results include:

• Mads Burnell def. Mike Santiago via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 124, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in St. Louis.)