Jack Della Maddalena dethroned Belal Muhammad via unanimous decision to become the UFC welterweight champion in Montreal.
Two judges gave the victory at UFC 315 to Della Maddalena by slim 48-47 margins while the third saw it 49-46 in his favour.
The 28-year-old, who came into the fight in Canada off the back of a year-long lay-off, said: “It’s exactly how I thought it would feel, it feels good.”
Muhammad hadn’t lost a fight since January 2019 going into the contest but in his first title defence was left bloodied and wobbling after the Australian landed 200 strikes.
“He brings the pressure, so I had to be smart on my feet,” Della Maddalena added.
“Coming in there against someone like him, I had to be smart. I couldn’t spend too much time on my back. When I did, I waited until I could get my energy back and made a move.
“I wanted to take him out of there. I was gunning for a late finish. But he’s tough to put away.”
Della Maddalena becomes the third Australian in history to hold a UFC title, alongside current featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski and former middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker.
In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko retained the women’s flyweight title with a unanimous-decision win against Manon Fiorot.
It was a narrow victory for the champion against first-time UFC title challenger Fiorot, with all three judges scoring 48-47 in her favour.
“I was expecting a very hard fight. She’s a hard opponent and a good striker,” Shevchenko, 37, said.
“Everything I wanted to do getting ready for the fight, I was able to do.”
Before this win, Shevchenko completed her trilogy with Alexa Grasso with a unanimous-decision victory at UFC 306 in September.
