Kiwi fighter Israel Adesanya has made an emphatic statement to the rest of the UFC's middleweight division with a dominant win over veteran Brad Tavares.
Facing his most significant test to date, the Nigerian-born Aucklander established control early and never relented, overwhelming his opponent with his full arsenal of strikes, all thrown with calculated precision, to maintain his unbeaten record.
The Kiwi proved far too difficult a puzzle for Tavares to solve, dictating the terms of the fight with an offence spearheaded by slicing elbows and knees in the clinch and galvanised by a defence founded on staccato head movement.
Adesanya earned a clean sweep of rounds on all but one of the judge's scorecards and finished with an enormous 119 to 40 advantage in significant strikes landed.
"All the pundits, and all the experts said ‘too soon, he’s only had two fights in the UFC,'" Adesanya said in his post-fight interview. "He’s a tough dude. These islanders, they have tough heads."
"My first main event...I’m just getting warmed up. Give me some time."
Adesanya launched into a monologue in his native Nigerian tongue to finish, later laying down the gauntlet to ninth-ranked Uriah Hall. Hall is scheduled to fight Paulo Costa at UFC 226 on Sunday (NZ time).
The City Kickboxing product completely nullified the grappling offence of Tavares, repelling 11 of the Hawaiian's 12 takedown attempts and negotiating his way out of the grappling exchanges with ease.
He was a willing participant whenever the fight made its way to the mat, using submissions to sweep his way back to his feet and even threatening with a couple of chokes at stages.
With Tavares currently ranked eighth in the divisional rankings, Adesanya should now be propelled into the top 10, at the very least, and unlock a whole new tier of elite fighters. As far as warning shots go, they don't come much louder.
And if victory wasn't sweet enough, the 27-year-old was given the nod for Performance of the Night to earn a $US50,000 ($NZ73,000) bonus.
After a relatively close opening round, Adesanya stepped up the pace in the second. Establishing his range and finding his rhythm, the Kiwi began to tag Tavares consistently, expertly mixing up his strikes while evading the counter shots with deft head movement that had his opponent reaching for air.
The third round is where Adesanya rammed home his advantage, opening a gaping cut above Tavares' right eye with a pair of razor elbows and proceeding to ramp up the volume with a host of spinning attacks and stinging jabs.
The showman in Adesanya emerged as he sprawled to stuff takedown attempts and wrangled his way out clinches, then retook the centre of the Octagon and welcomed his rapidly fading opponent back to the middle for the next assault.
By the fifth and final round Tavares was fighting on pure heart, tilting with the weight of every Adesanya shot. His trainer, NZ kickboxing great Ray Sefo, tried to coax him back into the contest but the horse had well and truly bolted.
It's the ideal start to international fight week for the New Zealand contingent, with Adesanya's teammate Dan Hooker squaring off against Gilbert Burns on the undercard of UFC 226.
Hooker should be in action at approximately 11am on Sunday.
Newshub.