Max Holloway
Max Holloway successfully unified the featherweight title after his win over Jose Aldo Getty

KEY POINTS

  • Holloway defeated Aldo in the third round via TKO.
  • The Hawaiian is now the undisputed featherweight champion.

In one of the most highly anticipated bouts of the year, Max Holloway was able to comprehensively defeat Jose Aldo via TKO and unify the featherweight title at UFC 212 on Saturday (3 June).

Fighting on enemy territory in Rio de Janeiro, despite a slow start, Holloway got into his groove in the third round as he started landing more combinations before ultimately knocking Aldo down.

The Brazilian tried to recover as Holloway got on top of him and began some ground and pound, but it was to no avail as Aldo failed to properly defend himself, leading to referee John McCarthy stopping the fight.

The victory now makes it 11 wins in a row for "Blessed" who has been on an absolute tear in the featherweight division. Following the win, the 25-year-old demanded a performance of the night bonus as well as proposing to bring a UFC show to Hawaii next.

"I've been telling you guys this is the 'Blessed' era," Holloway said in his post-fight interview. "Dana White, where's my 50K? I want my check."

In the co-main event, Cláudia Gadelha defeated Karolina Kowalkiewicz via rear naked choke submission to cement her place as the number one women's strawweight contender.

Meanwhile, former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort was able to celebrate his first win since November 2015 with a unanimous decision win over Nate Marquardt on home turf.

While it was expected to be his last fight with the UFC, in the build up to the pay-per-view, it was revealed that the Brazilian had more fights left in his contract, which he confirmed in his post-fight interview.

"I've got five more fights to go, guys," Belfort revealed. "I was very excited. Firas (Zahabi) told me to calm down a little bit. I'm sorry, I wanted to get a knockout tonight, I was satisfied with my performance but I wanted the knockout."

Elsewhere, Paulo Borrachinha defeated Oluwale Bamgbose via TKO in a middleweight bout while Holloway's training partner and fellow Hawaiian Yancy Medeiros emerged victorious against Erick Silva via TKO.

UFC 212 results:

Featherweight unification title fight

Max Holloway (C) defeated Jose Aldo (C) via TKO.

Non-title fights

Cláudia Gadelha defeated Karolina Kowalkiewicz via rear naked choke submission.

Vitor Belfort defeated Nate Marquardt via unanimous decision.

Paulo Borrachinha defeated Oluwale Bamgbose via TKO.

Yancy Medeiros defeated Erick Silva via TKO.