NEWARK, N.J. – Fighting for the second time in two months, Tim Means dispatched George Sullivan with cold calculation to secure his fourth straight UFC win.

Means (24-6-1 MMA, 6-3 UFC) walked down Sullivan (16-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and picked him apart with superior striking before taking the fight to the mat and securing a submission.

The welterweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC on FOX 15 event at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims and a main card on FOX.

The fight was called off at the 3:41 mark of the third round for Means, who secured an arm-triangle submission on the rapidly expiring Sullivan. At the start of the final frame, Sullivan, who stepped up on short notice for injured Kenny Robertson, rested his hands on his knees, betraying his exhaustion.

Means made things no better by repeatedly attacking the body in the first and second rounds, focusing on the solar plexus with punches and a persistent front kick. While Sullivan gamely fought off his opponent with volume, he landed no shots that significantly hurt Means.

At close range, Means wasted no energy in picking his shots for maximum effect. It was his second straight stoppage after a first-round TKO of Dhiego Lima at February’s UFC 184 event. Sullivan suffers his first loss in the promotion’s octagon after a pair of wins and sees an overall eight-fight winning streak ended.

Means felt that he knew the right time to flip the switch once he had Sullivan tired.

“It was a last minute fight,” Means said after the fight. “I got started a little late and I knew I just needed to pick up the tempo, which I feel like I did in the third round. I could hear him gassing out, so I just needed to keep the pressure on him. We’ve been working a lot on submissions, so tonight I was hoping to get a submission or a knockout. The mission was to get a finish, and that’s what happened.”

Up-to-the-minute UFC on FOX 15 results include:

• Tim Means def. George Sullivan via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 3, 3:41
• Diego Brandao def. Jimy Hettes via TKO (doctor stoppage) – Round 1, 5:00
• Chris Dempsey def. Eddie Gordon via 29-28, 28-29, 29-28

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 15, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s Matt Erickson contributed to this report on site in Newark.)