Adesanya knocks out Whittaker to unify UFC title

12:48 AM ET

The UFC has a new undisputed champion. And maybe a new superstar on its hands, too.

Israel Adesanya knocked out Robert Whittaker with a right-hook-left-hook combination at 3:33 of the second round Saturday in the main event of UFC 243 in Melbourne, Australia.

Adesanya unified the middleweight title with the stoppage victory. He came in as the interim champion and Whittaker was the lineal champion.

The bout was one of the biggest in UFC middleweight history and took place in front of more than 57,000 at Marvel Stadium, a UFC attendance record. It was billed as an inter-country Oceania rivalry. Whittaker was born in New Zealand, but has spent most of his life in Australia. Adesanya is Nigerian-born but has lived in New Zealand since he was 13 years old.

Whittaker and Adesanya came in ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, among middleweights in ESPN’s MMA rankings. Whittaker was tied at No. 8 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list.

Adesanya (18-0) has won all seven of his fights in the UFC and is considered one of the hottest up-and-coming MMA athletes in the world. The Nigerian-born “Last Style Bender” was coming off a Fight of the Year-candidate victory over Kelvin Gastelum for the interim title at UFC 236 in April.

Adesanya, 30, is behind only Khabib Nurmagomedov with regards to most victories for a fighter with an undefeated record.

Whittaker (20-5) had won nine straight coming in and had not lost since 2014 when he was a welterweight. “The Reaper” was coming off back-to-back victories over Yoel Romero in 2017 and 2018.

Whittaker, 28, had not fought since June 2018 and oddly didn’t have a single title defense because of injuries, illnesses and Romero’s weight miss until Saturday. He held the middleweight title since late 2017.