Aussie fighter Jake Matthews nabs huge UFC 291 win over Darius Flowers – as fans and superstar Alex Volkanovski laud the star's performance: 'Didn't put a foot wrong'

Australian MMA fighter Jake Matthews has earned an impressive submission victory over Darius Flowers at UFC 291 – but it wasn’t without some controversy.

Flowers took the fight on late notice, replacing the Aussie’s original opponent Miguel Baeza who pulled out of the match up.

Flowers came out strong in the first round, pressuring the Melbourne fighter who was throwing heavy shots of his own.

In the opening moments of Round 2, Matthews landed a controversial front kick just above Flowers’ shorts that dropped him to his knees.

Flowers thought it was a low blow, but the ESPN commentary team were convinced it was a clean shot.

The replay also showed the kick appeared to be clean which prompted some outrage from fans.

‘Flowers milking the hell out of this. Dude got kicked in the stomach. Get your ass up and stop pretending you got kicked low,’ tweeted one fan.

‘Get up Flowers you p***y!!!! Matthews win by TKO!!! His gut was weak whole fight!!!’ said another

‘Flowers can f**k off. That’s a clean kick to the stomach. Cut Flowers from the UFC for even trying to pretend that was a low blow,’ said a third.

Flowers was given time by the ref to recover, but soon after the bout resumed Matthews got top position on his opponent and eventually submitted him with a rear-naked choke.

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Matthews paid tribute to his opponent in his post-fight interview, thanking him for taking the bout at short notice. 

‘We knew he’d put the pressure from the first round. Our goal was to just weather that storm, wait for him to tire out and then finish him as we did,’ Matthews said.

‘But it’s not about me. Darius, it’s guys like Darius that we’re able to fight, put food on the tables for our kids. He stepped up and took the flight short-notice. So a massive thank you to Darius.’

Matthews acknowledged his controversial kick was a little lower than where he normally aims.

‘If the referee says it was too low, then it was too low. It did hit the belt of his shorts, so that’s on me,’ Matthews said.

‘I could feel his power and energy wearing out,’ he added

‘I knew it was just a matter of time until he gave up the sub. I didn’t want to force the submission, I didn’t want to rush, I wanted to wait until he gave it to me, and then I’d know it was over.’

UFC champ Alex Volkanovski was quick to congratulate Matthews – who has now been competing in the UFC since 2013 and made the walk to the Octagon an incredible 18 times.

‘Nice one @JakeMatthewsUFC,’ Volkanovski wrote to Twitter.

Another fight fan added: ‘Massive win there by Jake Matthews, very impressive. Great Takedown defence and excellent finish. Overall not really (sic) put a foot wrong.’

A second added: ‘Jake Matthews was very impressive in there. Weathered the storm, attacked the body, and let the finish come to him.’