Jamahal Hill spoiled the party as he beat 43-year-old Glover Teixeira in his home country to win the vacant UFC light-heavyweight title.
Hill and Teixeira were fighting for the 205lb belt after no champion was crowned when Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought to a draw in their vacant light heavy-title clash last month. Former champion Jiri Prochazka opted to vacate his undisputed title in November when he pulled out of a rematch against Teixeira after suffering "the worse shoulder injury in history".
The fight was briefly halted in the opening round, which was largely uneventful, when Hill was accidentally poked in the eye by his rival. The action started to heat up in the second round when Hill landed a series of head kicks that stunned Teixeira, but the Brazilian bit down on his mouthpiece and fired back with some big punches of his own. Teixeira turned the tide by landing his first takedown of the fight and both men were bloodied and bruised heading into the third stanza.
