Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega delivered one of the best championship MMA fights of 2021 on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 266 at T-Mobile Arena.

Volkanovski beat Ortega 49-46, 50-45, 50-44 via unanimous decision after landing savage blows on his opponent to retain his featherweight title.

It was clear that Volkanovski wanted the win badly as he had said earlier this week and this fight turned out to be one of his finest performances in the UFC so far.

“I thought it was done,” Ortega said in his post-match interview. 

“That’s what we trained for my entire camp. … That little bastard is f—ing tough as hell.”

Volkanovski faced a fierce competition in Ortega, whose dangerous guard on the ground through his submission moves almost finished Volkanovski towards the end of the third round.

“Some of them were pretty tight,” Volkanovaki said of the submission attempts. “For some reason I went to the ground with him. Obviously, he’s good. … I thought I was in his head and he came back even stronger.”

Volkanovski, who hails from Australia, extended his UFC winning streak to 10 in a row.

The Aussie saw his first title defense against Max Holloway at UFC 251 in July 2020 where he scored a split decision win, leading many to think Holloway was the true winner because of how close the fight was.

The 32-year-old featherweight champion hasn’t lost since May 2013, when he participated in his fourth professional fight. 

On the other hand, Ortega was coming off a unanimous decision win over Chan Sung Jung, famously known as “The Korean Zombie”, last October.

The California native’s win over The Korean Zombie was a comeback victory after being out nearly two years due to injury. 

Ortega only had one career loss coming in and that also was in a featherweight title fight, against Holloway at UFC 231 in December 2018. 

The battle between Alex Volkanovski and Brian Ortega is being called a fight of the year candidate.

The bout between Volanovski and Ortega was originally scheduled for UFC 260 in March, but was postponed after Volkanovski tested positive for COVID-19.