Australians won five of their eight contests at an action-packed Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts card on Saturday in Sydney.
The show at Allphones Arena was headlined by American Luke Rockhold’s second-round submission win over Britain’s Michael Bisping in the battle between the fifth and ninth-ranked middleweights respectively.
None of the 11 bouts went the distance.
Victorian lightweight Jake Matthews, 20, the second-youngest fighter on the entire global UFC roster, displayed further evidence of his exciting potential against Brazilian Vagner Rocha.
He scored a second-round technical submission through a rear naked choke to improve his record to 9-0.
Four-time Australian olympic judo representative Dan Kelly marked his UFC debut with a first-round Kimura win over American Luke Zachrich in a middleweight contest.
Light heavyweight Anthony Perosh, 42, proved an old dog could certainly add some new tricks in his first-round win over Brazilian Guto Inocente via a first-round rear naked choke.
Sydney-based Robert Whittaker marked his first encounter as a middleweight with a second-round TKO win over American Clint Hester in an all-action bout.
Perth’s Soa Palelei gave the crowd another Australian winner with a second-round TKO victory over American Walt Harris.
Three Australian-based fighters suffered losses on the undercard.
The unluckiest was flyweight Richie Vaculik, who won the first two rounds on all three judges’ cards, before being caught at the start of the third and losing by TKO to Hawaiian Louis Smoka.
Welterweight Vic Grujic suffered a first-round TKO loss to Canadian Chris Clements, while middleweight Dylan Andrews was a first-round KO loser to American Sam Alvey.
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