UFC 251 is in the books, with Kamaru Usman, Alex Volkanovski and Petr Yan walking out with championship belts around their waists.
There were wild knockouts, controversies and refereeing blunders as the first event on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi proved a huge success.
Here's the breakdown, analysis and wash-up from UFC 251.
UFC 251: Close fights aren't robberies...
It was close between Alex Volkanovski and Max Holloway. Real close.
Volk lost the opening two rounds for sure, but fought back over the closing stages and was awarded a split decision victory.
It caused outrage on social media, with many believing Holloway did enough to reclaim the featherweight title.
UFC President Dana White addressed the decision afterwards.
"You can't leave it to the judges, man," he said. "We've got some bad judges. You can't leave it with them."
That's just the way close fights go. Someone has to lose. If the result had gone the other way, you'd have had as many people blowing up that Volkanovski was robbed.
But, close fights aren't always robberies. That was a tight one. It could've gone either way. That's fighting.
UFC 251: Put some respect on Kamaru Usman's name
It was almost as if some people had their memes ready for Kamaru Usman's welterweight title defence against Jorge Masvidal.
"Boring." "Snoozefest." "Worst welterweight champion ever."
The criticism came in thick and fast as Usman expertly nullified Masvidal's attack and ground out a one-sided win.
He played to his strengths, adapted mid-fight and made one of the most dangerous men in the 170 pound division look helpless at times.
He's on a 12-fight win streak in the UFC, including victories over Colby Covington, Tyron Woodley, Rafael dos Anjos and Demian Maia.
Put some damn respect on his name. He's phenomenal.
Nigerian nightmare, Kamaru Usman, retains his UFC welterweight championship and remains undefeated with a win over Masvidal pic.twitter.com/ULe8whboiJ
— Mkmailng (@mkmail_ng) July 12, 2020
Strawweights are awesome. End of story
The strawweights are overlooked. Big time. Especially at the top of the division.
Rose Namajunas' win over Jessica Andrade offered us some incredible action. As did their first fight. So did both of Thug Rose's title fights against Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Meanwhile, the Polish former champion is coming off a fight of the year contender against Zhang Weili, and was in entertaining wars with Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Claudia Gadelha and won a straight-up scary fight against Valerie Letourneau in Melbourne in 2015.
There's often negative chatter around the strawweights, but the division is one of the most exciting in the UFC.
Namajunas for a title shot next? Yes, please.
Dodgy refereeing is global
Petr Yan and Jose Aldo went toe-to-toe over the first three rounds of their bantamweight title fight before the young lion pulled away in the championship rounds.
Yan had Aldo on the canvas early in the fifth round and laid on some bruising ground and pound. The beating seemed to drag on forever before the ref finally stepped in and stopped it.
I'm all for giving fighters the opportunity to survive punishment, especially in a title fight, but there was no way Aldo was going to come back in the fifth round.
He was finished long before the fight was.
The ref's intervention took so long that "STOP THE FIGHT" was trending on Twitter.
amazing pic.twitter.com/4q6jIzKTCp
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) July 12, 2020
No good.
Harsher penalties for missing weight
Two fighters missed weight pretty badly at UFC 251.
Raulian Paiva missed the flyweight limit by four pounds, while Vanessa Melo was six pounds over the bantamweight weight limit.
Those aren't small misses. Excuses could be made given the unique circumstances we're living in at the moment, but is it time for the penalties for missing weight to be increased?
Paiva and Melo both gave up a portion of their fight purses, but it could be time for point deductions for bad misses.
For example, a fighter is docked a point if they miss weight by a certain percentage of the mandated limit. Say, if a fighter misses by four percent of the weight limit, they're docked a point.
Four percent of 135-pounds is 5.4 pounds, so Melo would have been deducted a point.
Four percent of 125-pounds is 5 pounds, so Paiva would've been safe - just.
Something to think about.
Start deducting points for fouls already!
Roman Bogatov fouled Leonardo Santos a lot. Like, a lot a lot.
Three times in the third round, in fact.
The first two fouls were low blows, and the third was an illegal knee to the head. Not good.
Referee Marc Goddard handled the bout fairly well overall, allowing Bogatov to fight through a particularly bad patch when others would've stopped the bout.
But he could have acted sooner in deducting points.
After the illegal knees, Goddard could be heard asking Bogatov, "what are you doing? What are you doing??" before taking two points from him.
Okay, so the two-point deduction was sweet, but let's get that energy a bit earlier.
Jiří Procházka says he'll fight for a title, and I believe him
What a way to make your UFC debut!
Jiří Procházka knocked out former light-heavyweight title contender Volkan Oezdemir in the second round with a beautiful right hand down the pipe.
The former RIZIN LHW champ is no mug and proved he's up to the task after being handed a tough assignment in his debut.
After the match, he said he's got his eyes on the 205-pound title, and I believe - at the very least - he'll get that shot.
Read more about his debut here.
No favours in the UFC...
Remember when Paige VanZant was one of the UFC's most heavily promoted stars?
What a time. And what a long time ago that seems.
This weekend, she was matched up with rising star Amanda Ribas. It was a terrible stylistic match for PVZ, and she was the underdog going in.
Nothing crazy about that, right? Well, no, not until you realise it was the last fight of her UFC contract.
She's now officially a free agent. And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that heading into a contract negotiation on the back of a first-round submission defeat is bad news.
It's a play we've seen plenty of times in the past.
That was the old Joe Silva special. Send PVZ into free agency off a bad matchup that inevitably leads to bad loss. We've seen that one for years. #UFC251
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) July 12, 2020
UFC 251 RESULTS
MAIN CARD
Welterweight Kamaru Usman (c) def. Jorge Masvidal Decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
A one-sided beatdown, to be honest.
Featherweight Alexander Volkanovski (c) def. Max Holloway Decision (split) (47-48, 48-47, 48-47)
Another high-level featherweight title fight between to legends. But the Aussie got the decision.
Bantamweight Petr Yan def. José Aldo TKO (punches)
Petr Yan is the new bantamweight champion of the world after a fifth-round TKO win over Jose Aldo!
Women's Strawweight Rose Namajunas def. Jéssica Andrade Decision (split) (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Strawweight is one of the best divisions in the UFC. Change my mind. In this rematch, Namajunas avenged her loss to Andrade for the 115-pound title last year. She should get a title shot next.
Women's Flyweight Amanda Ribas def. Paige VanZant Submission (armbar)
Slick work from Amanda Ribas, who earns the win after 2:23 of the first round. She isn't far away from a title shot.
It's a QUICK night at the office for Ribas!
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) July 12, 2020
She submits Van Zant in the first 🇧🇷 #UFC251 pic.twitter.com/2xpUBsc2Mq
Light Heavyweight Jiří Procházka def Volkan Oezdemir KO (punch)
WHAT A FIGHT. In his UFC debut, RIZIN light heavyweight champion Jiří Procházka slept Volkan Oezdemir in the second round.
Welterweight Muslim Salikhov def. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos Decision (split) (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Featherweight Makwan Amirkhani def. Danny Henry Technical Submission (anaconda choke)
A first round submisison win for Amirkhani after he puts Henry to sleep with an anaconda choke. Amirkhani showed some nice sportsmanship afterwards too, making sure Henry was ok.
This is what MMA is all about, well played @MakwanAmirkhani 👏
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) July 12, 2020
Mr Finland submitted Danny Henry and then made sure his opponent was stable. #UFC251 pic.twitter.com/gq82UCDX6g
Lightweight Leonardo Santos def. Roman Bogatov Decision (unanimous) (29-26, 29-26, 29-26)
A WILD lightweight brawl that saw Bogatov hit Santos low twice and hit him with illegal knees to the head in the third round. Referee Marc Goddard could have disqualified him, but instead deducted two points for the illegal knees.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) July 12, 2020
After a series of illegal strikes by Roman Bogatov, referee @marcgoddard_uk asks the obvious question... #UFC251 pic.twitter.com/3sXMYr1SLi
Heavyweight Marcin Tybura def. Maxim Grishin Decision (unanimous) (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
A win for Tybura. Not the most entertaining fight you'll ever see.
Catchweight (129 lb) Raulian Paiva vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
Bit of controversy here after Paiva was awarded a close decision after missing weight by three pounds and kicking Zhumagulov low twice.
Catchweight (141 lb) Karol Rosa def. Vanessa Melo Decision (unanimous) (30-26, 30-26, 30-27) 5:00
A pretty one-sided bout, with Karol Rosa dominating all three rounds.
Bantamweight Davey Grant def. Martin Day KO (punch) 3 2:38
What a way to start the day, with Grant starching Day with a left hook.
BOOOOOM!@DaveyGrantMMA gets #UFC251 started in a BIG way with the WALK OFF KO!#InAbuDhabi @VisitAbuDhabi pic.twitter.com/bAqR2Dx0Pr
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) July 11, 2020