Merab Dvalishvili defended his bantamweight championship against Sean O’Malley on Saturday in the main event of UFC 316, and made it look easy.

Dvalishvili became champion this past September when he took the title from O’Malley via unanimous decision at UFC 306. He improved on his performance in the rematch, submitting O’Malley in the third round.

The opening round saw Dvalishvili take O’Malley down twice – he had six total takedowns in the first meeting that required all 25 minutes – and maintained top position for nearly half the round. In Round 2, Dvalishvili utilized some improved striking skills, out-landing O’Malley 23 to 19 in significant strikes in the most competitive of the three rounds.

Dvalishvili, the UFC’s all-time takedowns leader, turned up the tempo even more in Round 3 where he landed three additional takedowns on O’Malley, and peppered the challenger with non-impactful ground strikes before latching onto O’Malley’s neck and forcing a tap from a north-south choke with 18 seconds remaining in the round.

O’Malley had not fought since losing the title to Dvalishvili. The 30-year-old American is now on the first two-fight losing streak of her career.

The reigning champion chose to stay active after winning the belt and was coming off a unanimous-decision win over Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January.

Cory Sandhagen is one of the only top-ranked contenders Dvalishvili has yet to face and is likely the next challenger. Sandhagen was cageside at the Prudential Center in New Jersey and Dvalishvili, who said earlier this year he wants four title defences in 2025, complimented Sandhagen during a post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

The co-main event featured Kayla Harrison submitting Julianna Peña to become the new women’s bantamweight champion.

Harrison had a dominant performance and locked in a fight-ending kimura in the second round. The 34-year-old two-time Olympic gold medal winner in judo became just the second athlete ever to win both Olympic gold and a UFC championship joining Henry Cejudo.

Harrison could welcome former champion Amanda Nunes back to the sport for her first title defence. Nunes vacated the title in 2023 but has since announced she plans on returning to competition to win back the title.

In other main card action, Patchy Mix’s UFC debut did not go as planned.

The former Bellator MMA bantamweight champion was ultra confident all week yet was a step behind Mario Bautista in the cage and lost a unanimous decision to Mario Bautista.

Mix is a high-level submission artist but was stiff and slow on the feet compared to Bautista, who extended his winning streak to eight in a row and could be one more win from entering the title picture.

Bautista set a new personal record by landing 173 significant strikes in the three-round contest; his old record was 129. Mix did his best work in the final round but lost the fight on all scorecards.

Joe Pyfer won a decision over Kelvin Gastelum, however he said afterwards he was disappointed in his performance. Pyfer dropped Gastelum in both the opening and closing minute of the opening round but couldn’t find the finish and Gastelum got stronger as the fight progressed.

Kevin Holland kicked off the main card with a submission win over Vicente Luque in the second round of their welterweight matchup. The 32-year-old American has won two in a row since dropping back down to the 170-pound division after two consecutive losses at 185 pounds.

Holland forced a tap from Luque by locking in an anaconda choke early in the second round and called out Colby Covington following the win.

Luque was coming off a 52-second submission win over Themba Gorimbo in December but has now alternated wins and losses over his past four appearances. This weas Luque’s first submission loss of his 23-fight UFC tenure.

Azamat Murzakanov, Joshua Van and UFC newcomer Joo-sang Yoo were among the big winners from the preliminary card.