Vicious Romero left spells 'goodnight' for Rockhold

Yoel Romero capped off a drama-filled UFC 221 with a brutal left hook that spelled "goodnight" for Luke Rockhold in Perth.

The focus heading into the UFC 221 interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold was the fact it had a chance to be an amazing fight.

That idea shifted in another direction when Romero missed weight by almost three pounds and would no longer be competing for the belt.

The fight was on the verge of not happening but after intense negotations, the fight was still on and Romero forfeited 30 percent of his purse to Rockhold.

Perhaps that was all the fire that the Cuban required because he came out swinging like a man possessed in the main event bout on Sunday.

Unfortunately for Romero, his unprofessionalism cost him a significant amount of money as well as a belt because he knocked out Rockhold at 1:48 in the third round.

It was a huge left hook that sneaked through Rockhold's defence and caught him flush on the chin - ending the bout in an instant.

Romero was clearly overjoyed with the victory but left lamenting what could have been after the fight.

"I'm so sorry for the weight cut being so bad for me," Romero said in his post-fight interview.

"That was the first time in my career I couldn't get down (in weight)."

No doubt next tiime next time he'll actually be fighting for a chance to claim the middleweight belt.

Australian Mark Hunt's chances of earning a shot at the UFC heavyweight title took a huge blow after he suffered a unanimous points defeat to America's world No.1 Curtis Blaydes in a three-round bout.

Blaydes was in trouble during the opening round after copping a series of heavy punches to the head.

At one point, it looked like Hunt was close to ending it by TKO as Blaydes struggled to keep his feet.

But Blaydes turned the contest on its head by turning it into a grapple-fest.

Hunt was powerless on the ground during the second and third rounds.

Every time he got back to his feet, he would be body slammed straight back onto the tarmac.

Blaydes won the contest 30-26, 30-26, 29-27 on the judges' cards.

With agencies