Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera – UFC 299: Start time, undercard results and updates follow all the action in Miami as ‘Suga’ makes first title defence, with Dustin Poirier and Michael ‘Venom’ Page also in action

Blaydes has barely been in the fight, but wins it in about 10 seconds. Almeida shoots for a takedown, but it is packed and puts his head in a bad position. Blaydes then lands several unanswered hammerfists in a row and it’s enough to end the fight. Wow.

Almeida struggles with Blaydes in the first round, leaving him exhausted and not having a moment to breathe. The crowd doesn’t like it and wants to see more action, but the Brazilian controlled him from close range and brought his opponent back to the mat seemingly at will.

Almeida and Blaydes are part of the young generation of heavyweight weapons. Both men will have watched Aspinall beat Pavlovich and feel they are not far away from a shot themselves. Blaydes, of course, beat Aspinall on a technicality when they met in London and the Brit was injured early on. Almeida is an extremely strong candidate, but today will be his biggest test yet. Wonderboy takes the American with him.

Maybe next there’s a main event slot for Barber, who pushes aside Cerminara at flyweight. The American will likely be one of the top five ranked fighters next week.

It always looks undeniably cool when taken off, but with ACL tear potential when it’s not. Kyler Phillips executed his perfectly tonight after beating Pedro Munhoz. Gaethje’s backflip out of the cage is another level of insanity all together.

This guy is 6 feet tall and has an 87 inch reach, the longest in the UFC. He is still early in his MMA career, but appears to be a brilliant prospect and a freakish athlete. A winning start to life in the big show tonight.

RDA was once a man no one wanted to face, but the veteran is no longer in his prime, far from it. That said, Gamrot and his brutal wrestling has caused everyone problems and while he isn’t the most exciting fighter in the world, he is extremely effective.

Will it be revenge or a repeat later? O’Malley’s only career defeat is one he dismisses as a fluke, but Vera delivered the leg kick that put him in fair danger. What are the chances of him repeating the trick tonight? Here are the numbers, what about both men…

Joanne Wood opened the early pre-lims with a decision victory over Maryna Moroz before Assu Almabayev defeated CJ Vergara in similar fashion.

Then the long-awaited debut of the towering Robelis Despaigne ended in a first-round KO victory for the Cuban, with Michel Pereira defeating Michal Oleksiejczuk.

It’s always fascinating to see how fellow UFC fighters view a main event and interestingly, opinions are divided despite the bookmakers favoring the champion.

UFC 299 has arrived! The big, bad UFC 300 card is coming next month, but for my money, tonight’s event isn’t a million miles off in terms of depth and quality. Keep it here for the latest updates from the pre-lims and main card ahead of Sean O’Malley’s title defense against Marlon Vera later in the headliner.