TORONTO – Featherweight champion Max Holloway stopped top contender Brian Ortega by TKO at UFC 231 on Saturday night.
The fight was stopped by the doctor after four rounds. Ortega’s left eye was almost closed, his face bloodied.
The skills of Holloway, who was returning from an injury-plagued year, were too much for Ortega, who had rallied in the third round but was unable to take Holloway down or use his vaunted jiu-jitsu.
Valentina Shevchenko, a native of Kyrgyzstan, overpowered a game, but outmatched Joanna Jedrzejczyk of Poland, for the vacant women’s flyweight title in the co-main event. Shevchenko won a unanimous five-round decision.