Alexander Volkanovski re-asserted himself as the featherweight champion with a technical knockout over Yair Rodriguez at 4:19 of the third round in UFC 290.

Rodriguez was the interim champion after Volkanovski temporarily moved up to lightweight, but the Australian left little doubt who the better fighter was, running his record to 26-2 in what was scheduled as a five-round bout.

Volkanovski took Rodriguez (16-4) to the mat near the two-minute mark of the first round and kept him there to dictate the pace. That became a theme as the second round played out much the same way, with Volkanovski, 34, also delivering several shots to Rodriguez’s face.

Rodriguez, who is from Mexico, then took the fight to Volkanovski in the third round, preventing the ground and pound with a series of kicks to put him on the defence. But with a minute left, Volkanovski slammed Rodriguez, 30, to the mat and pounded him with rights and lefts before referee Herb Dean stepped in.

This was Volkanovski’s first fight since a loss by unanimous decision to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev on February 11. That ended Volkanovski’s 22-fight winning streak, and after the brief elevation to lightweight, he dropped back down to featherweight for this fight.

Before moving up, Volkanovski had won five title fights to make a strong argument as best featherweight of all time. He also has been in the conversation for top current pound-for-pound fighter, and Volkanovski is second in the UFC’s official rankings to Jon Jones.

Earlier, Australia’s former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was upset by South African Dricus Du Plessis via TKO in a fight to become number one contender to face champion Israel Adesanya.

Whittaker, in his first bout in nearly 12 months, was split open by an elbow in round one and stunned by a straight right in round two, with the South African teeing off on the fence before the referee stopped the fight.

Du Plessis extended his longest active win streak in the division to six and traded verbal barbs inside the octagon with Adesanya following the fight.

The Volkanovski-Rodriguez match highlighted the International Fight Week card that included a second championship bout.

Brazil’s Alexandre Pantoja captured the flyweight belt by beating champion Brandon Moreno of Mexico, winning by split decision. Judges Derek Cleary and Junichiro Kamijo gave Pantoja the victory at 48-47 in the five-round fight, but Ben Cartlidge saw the bout quite differently with a 49-46 score in favour of Moreno.

Pantoja (26-5) collapsed to the mat after the decision was announced. He has beaten Moreno (21-7-2) in all three meetings.

“I worked so hard,” Pantoja said.

“I left everything I had.”