Despite it being some four years since St-Pierre, who is widely considered one of the greatest UFC fighters ever, if not the greatest, had stepped inside the octagon, he showed no signs of rust through a fairly even first two rounds before choking out Bisping in the final minute of the third round, as the Australian applauded at ringside.

"I don't have a word in my mouth right now. It's a dream come true," he told Joe Rogan after the fight.

"He hurt me, a few times I got stung - I tried to hide it - I wouldn't like to do that fight again!"

When asked about whether he would remain at middleweight to defend the gold in a fight with Whittaker, 'Rush' ruled out any chance of his foray into the middleweight division lasting just one fight. When speaking about his weight, he said: "There's a point that it's too much - but now I'm at the point that it's OK.

"I studied a lot of Michael's tape. I knew he had problems with a shot coming to his right. Michael is the toughest guy I've fought. This man is amazing. He's a true example of hard work and perserverance. All my respect to you, man."

Known in the sport as one of the greatest trash talkers ever, Bisping was humble after the defeat, offering praise to the new champion. "You gotta give it up to Georges. He was the better man tonight," he said, while also ruling out any talk that this would be his last fight.

"I'm not done. I know I spoke about retirement."

Bisping had ruled out travelling to Perth for UFC 221, but with GSP taking the win, we now may see Whittaker v GSP as the headline to the pay-per-view - in what would certainly be the biggest fight in Australian MMA history, and perhaps the biggest in any combat sport.

Earlier, there were a pair of title upsets in the lead-up, with two previously undefeated champions each being shocked with an early stoppage.

Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, who was 11-0 going into the fight, was beaten by former friend turned bitter rival T.J. Dillashaw, who registered a TKO win midway through the second round.

After a cagey opening five minutes, Dillishaw rocked the champ with a vicious kick to the head, before closing in with a barrage of blows that forced a stoppage. It is Dillashaw's second title reign, after losing the belt in a controversial split decision to Dominick Cruz at the start of 2016.

Dillishaw had entered the contest as a slight betting underdog, but that was nothing compared to the women's strawweight title fight that preceded it, which gave us possibly an even bigger upset than when Ronda Rousey was knocked out by Holly Holm in Melbourne.

Joanna J??drzejczyk entered the octagon at Madison Square Garden with 14 fights and zero losses - with eight of those wins coming since joining the UFC back in 2014. Few gave American challenger Rose Namajunas much of a chance, but she didn't take long to shock the world, ending the fight after roughly three minutes of the first round with a flurry of punches.