In the primary occasion, Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili submitted American Sean O’Malley within the third spherical to retain his bantamweight title.

Dvalishvili beat O’Malley for the belt final yr with a usually relentless show of grappling and mirrored the efficiency within the rematch.

Though O’Malley defended nicely within the second spherical, he was taken down early within the third and Dvalishvili by no means regarded again, controlling the motion on the bottom earlier than securing a north-south choke.

Victory was Dvalishvili’s second defence of his belt and prolonged his successful streak to 13, the second-longest within the UFC amongst energetic fighters.

Russia’s Islam Makhachev holds the longest with 15.

“I am on prime of the world. I got here from nothing, I am so grateful to encourage so many generations. It does not matter what you have got if you understand the place you are going and you’ve got a objective,” stated Dvalishvili.

On the undercard, former Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Combine suffered a unanimous resolution defeat on his UFC debut by fellow American Mario Bautista.

Combine, who left the PFL in Could after venting frustrations over an absence of fights, suffered his second defeat in 22 bouts whereas Bautista prolonged his successful streak to eight.