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

Maddalena: ‘My plan was to come here, grab the cash and dash. There’s some scary people in this division but I’m one of the scariest and how about me against Rakmanhov as a title eliminator?’

Burns lands on top and looks like he could burn the clock to victory but Maddalena escapes beautifully before landing an incredibly well placed knee on the break. He then swarms and lands a number of elbows before the ref intervenes. Such an impressive win for him and the welterweight division has a new contender.

Maddalena connects with some beautiful combinations and is on top for most of the round but the big moments belong to the Brazilian. He landed a big step in elbow and overhand right, also securing another late takedown and ending up on the Australian’s back before running out of time.

Maddalena is calculated and doesn’t load up on any of his shots. He’s the cleaner striker for my money but Burns takes him down twice in the round and ends it on top with one huge ground and pound shot which could have influenced the judges, a tough one to call.

How far can Maddalena go? The Aussie has been a rising force at welterweight for some time and beat Kevin Holland last time out. Burns, who lives in Florida, will have the crowd on his side against the talented striker from Perth.

The former president, a Florida resident, is in the building and flashes up on the big screen walking to his seat alongside Dana White. He’s given a strong reception from the locals which is no surprise.

‘Thank you so much for supporting me,’ Yan says. ‘It was very important win for me tonight, I am back. I want hard fights with tough opponents.’

Cracking fight. It looks like Yan has done enough to reverse his fortunes from the first round. He ends the fight on top after a pretty even three minutes and even locks up a submission before the bell sounds. His uppercut was on the money all night and thee Russian has proven he’s still a top contender at bantamweight.

The Russian had a rocket from his corner at the end of the first and it worked a treat. He came out for the second willing to engage far more and land first, crucially before Song can lead the combinations. It all comes down to the final five minutes and Song has a nasty cut to his eyelid.

Song Yadong takes the opening round for my money. It is largely a cagey affair but he lands the more telling blows and doesn’t seem to respect Yan’s power, knowing he can control the centre of the cage. Song also takes his man down and thee 26-year-old is looking solid so far.

This guy looked unbeatable for a while but Yan’s career has stalled a bit in recent times. He lost to Sterling, O’Malley and then Dvalishvili and will be desperate not to make it four defeats in succession tonight against the powerful Song Yadong.

O’Malley has come a long way since his first loss to Vera so there could well be some value in an early stoppage, especially as Vera is notoriously a slow starter.

Gilbert Burns vs Jack Della Maddalena

Kevin Holland vs Michael Page

Dustin Poirier vs Benoit Saint Denis

Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera

Blaydes has barely been in the fight but wins it in the space of about 10 seconds. Almeida shoots for a takedown but it is stuffed and puts his head in a poor position. Blaydes then lands a number of unanswered hammer fists in succession and it is enough to end the fight. Wow.

Almeida grapples the hell out of Blaydes in the first, exhausting him and not allowing a moment to breathe. The crowd don’t like it and want to see more action but the Brazilian controlled him at close quarters and returned his opponent to the mat seemingly at will.

Almeida and Blaydes are part of the young gun generation at heavyweight. Both men will have watched Aspinall beat Pavlovich and feel they aren’t too 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 a hugely powerful contender but today will be his biggest test so far. Wonderboy is taking the American.

Maybe there’s a main event slot next for Barber, who brushes aside Cerminara at flyweight. The American is likely to be a top five-ranked fighter next week.

It always looks undeniably cool when pulled off, but with ACL tearing potential when it isn’t. Kyler Phillips managed to execute his perfectly tonight after beating Pedro Munhoz. Gaethje’s backflip off the cage is another level of insanity all together.

This man is 6ft 7in and has a reach of 87in, the longest in the UFC. He’s still early on in his MMA career but looks to be a brilliant prospect and freakish athlete. A winning start to his life in the big show tonight.

RDA was once upon a time a man who nobody wanted to face but the veteran is no longer in his prime, far from it. That said, Gamrot and his relentless wrestling has caused everyone problems and even though he’s not the most exciting fighter in the world, he’s mightily effective.

Will it be revenge or repeat later on? O’Malley’s only career defeat is one he discounts as a fluke, but Vera landed the leg kick that compromised him fair and square, what odds of him repeating the trick tonight? Here’s what the numbers how about both men…

Joanne Wood opened up the early pre-lims with a decision win over Maryna Moroz before Assu Almabayev saw off CJ Vergara by the same means.

Then the highly anticipated debut for the enormous Robelis Despaigne ended in a first round KO victory for the Cuban and Michel Pereira beat Michal Oleksiejczuk.

It’s always fascinating to see how fellow UFC fighters see a main event and interestingly, opinion is split despite bookies favouring the champion.

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