UFC 208: Germaine De Randamie beats Holly Holm, becomes first women's featherweight champion

De Randamie won the bout via unanimous decision in the main event at Brooklyn.

Germaine De Randamie defeated Holly Holm by unanimous decision at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday (11 February) to become the company's first ever women's featherweight champion.

The fight went the distance as the Dutch fighter won 48-47, 48-47, 48-47, even as the win was marred in controversy as De Randamie struck Holm after the bell on two occasions.

Holm was struck hard following the end of the second and third rounds as inexperienced referee Todd Anderson was late in separating the two fighters. No points were deducted for De Randamie's illegal strikes, which if done, would have seen the result level on points.

Following the decision, De Randamie explained her strikes were in the heat of the moment. She said, "It was in the heat of the moment. I apologized, I'm not like that."

The new featherweight women's champion is expected to face Cris "Cyborg" Justino once her USADA-related case is cleared, although De Randamie has suggested that she needed surgery on her hand due to torn ligaments.

De Randamie is now the first Dutch fighter to hold a UFC belt in 18 years since Bas Rutten, while Holm has been defeated thrice now following her win against Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in November 2015.

In other notable results of the night, Anderson Silva controversially defeated Derek Brunson via unanimous decision as many felt the latter should have won. Brunson dominated majority of the fight, but was on the losing side as he took to social media to complain about the result.

"Wow unreal I put my heart & soul out there on 3 weeks notice only to get it taken from me.I just outclassed the greatest of all time #UFC208," Brunson wrote on his official Facebook page.

Jacare Souza defeated Tim Boetsch via a first-round kimura submission to further stake his claim at a title shot for the middleweight belt.

Meanwhile, Glover Teixeira defeated Jared Cannonier in what was mostly a grappling match, Dustin Poirier defeated Jim Miller in a bout that was called the fight of the night.