Israel Adesanya was just minutes away from defending his title against Alex Pereira - with the official scorecards of their UFC 281 fight released.
Middleweight champion Adesanya was looking to make the sixth defence of his title in the main event at Madison Square Garden, but he failed to do after being knocked out in the fifth round by former kickboxing rival Pereira. 'The Last Stylebender' did a good job in the early rounds, mixing up his wrestling and striking to drain the gas tank of knockout-artist Pereira.
'The Last Stylebender' was cruising his way to a unanimous decision win heading into the final round, but with three minutes left to go Pereira caught him with a big flurry of punches to close the show. The three judges at cageside all scored the fight the same way, with Adesanya winning every round apart from the second.
