Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington put on a fight of the year contender in the UFC 245 main event.
But, it was Usman who came out on top between the two after over 24 minutes of competition.
With the fight in the balance, Usman finished the fight with less than a minute to go after dropping Covington on two occasions.
The pair had gone back-and-forth for over two years, but finally got to fight in Las Vegas, however it is unlikely the rivalry has ended after that.
In the co main event, Alexander Volkanovski dethroned Max Holloway of his featherweight crown.
The Aussie fighter landed leg kicks and strikes in short bursts throughout the contest to tally a score of (48-47, 48-47 and 50-45) on the judges scorecards.
Volkanovski was the fourth title challenger of Holloway’s reign and a rematch should be set for 2020.
Also, Women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes defended her 135 lbs title with a win over Dutch fighter Germaine de Randamie.
The victory didn’t come easy though as the Brazilian champion suffered some nervy moments throughout the contest, but came out of them to earn a clear unanimous decision win.
Nunes is widely regarded as one of the best fighters of all time and will continue into 2020 with two titles at her disposal to defend against the emerging title contenders.
One possibility could be Irene Aldana who defeated Ketlen Vieira on the preliminary card with a vicious first-round knockout.
Two legends in Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber opened the main card against younger, rising fighters and were ultimately unsuccessful.
Faber fell short to Petr Yan via knockout and Aldo to Marlon Moraes by way of split decision.
American Geoff Neal once again proved he was ready for the step up as he became the first man to knock out Mike Perry in the preliminary card headliner. The fight consequently proved again the quality of the welterweight division.
Another stand-out performance came in the first fight of the night with UFC debutant Punahele Soriano recording a performance bonus for his first-round knockout of Oskar Piechota.
The massive event came just over a month after UFC 244, with the sport’s biggest organisation saving the two biggest events of the year until last.
The next pay-per-view card on January 18th will see the return of superstar Conor McGregor.
UFC 245 Full Results:
Kamaru Usman defeated Colby Covington via fifth-round TKO
Alexander Volkanovski defeated Max Holloway via unanimous decision
Amanda Nunes defeated Germaine de Randamie via unanimous decision
Marlon Moraes defeated Jose Aldo via split decision
Petr Yan defeated Urijah Faber via third-round KO
Geoff Neal defeated Mike Perry via first-round KO
Irene Aldana defeated Ketlen Vieira via first-round KO
Omari Akhmedov defeated Ian Heinisch via unanimous decision
Matt Brown defeated Ben Saunders via second-round KO
Chase Hooper defeated Daniel Teymur via first-round TKO
Brandon Moreno defeated Kai Kara-France via unanimous decision
Jessica Eye defeated Viviane Araujo via unanimous decision
Punahele Soriano defeated Oskar Piechota via first-round KO
Picture by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Creative Commons License
