Alexander Volkanovski stopped Yair Rodriguez in the third round at UFC 290 to defend his featherweight title.
Volkanovski was hoping to return to winning ways after he missed out on the chance to become a two-weight champion in February as he was beaten by Islam Makhachev. Rodriguez was also in action at the same event as he captured the interim featherweight title on that night by impressively tapping out Josh Emmett with a guillotine choke.
The champion wasted no time in taking the fight to the ground as he scored his first takedown in the opening few minutes. Volkanovski was beating Rodriguez up on the ground and he threatened an arm-triangle submission but Rodriguez did well to defend it.