Holloway pounds out Aldo in 3rd, unifies featherweight title at UFC 212

The featherweight torch has been passed.

After dropping Jose Aldo with a stiff right hand, Max Holloway swarmed him with a barrage of ground-and-pound for a third-round TKO that unified their 145-pound titles in the main event of UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

Holloway stopped Anthony Pettis - also by third-round TKO - to become the division's interim titleholder at UFC 206 in December, and extended his division-best win streak to a gaudy 11 - good for fifth in promotional history - with Saturday's stoppage.

It looked like Holloway was in for the meanest of schoolings through the first round and change, as Aldo looked every bit the fighter that had ravaged the featherweight crop for the better part of a decade, though oddly sans the patented leg kicks. The Brazilian hung with "Blessed" in the pocket and got the better of every striking exchange, sending him reeling with a nasty combination midway through the opening frame.

Aldo continued to tag Holloway in the second, although the Hawaiian's confidence and striking output grew as the fight wore on.

The 25-year-old officially ushered in a new era in Round 3, as he cut angles, made Aldo miss, and threw combinations at a suffocating rate until he put the Brazilian down with a right hand just over two minutes in. Aldo desperately worked to regain his faculties and defend himself from the hellfire Holloway rained down, only for Holloway to take his back and angle for a rear-naked choke before reverting back to ground-and-pound for the stoppage at the 4:13 mark.

Six months after being promoted from interim to undisputed champ, Aldo's reign atop the featherweight heap has been reduced to a one-and-done with his second knockout loss in his last three fights.