Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif., belonged to Ilia Topuria.
Republic of Georgia, the homeland of his parents where he grew up as a boy, revels in one of their own reaching the top.
Spain, where Topuria arrived as a teen and became a man and then a champion, can rejoice as it arrived at the top of the MMA world stage.
Yes, UFC 298 was the coming out party of Topuria as he exploded a grenade of a right hook on the chin of Alexander Volkanovski. What was once the Aussie’s — the featherweight championship — now is the Georgian-Spaniard’s.
The UFC is an organization of shiny new objects, and nothing shines brighter right now than its 27-year-old new champ.
But don’t get too distracted just yet as to quickly forget exactly what Volkanovski accomplished over the last four years.
Sustained excellence is about as rare as it gets in mixed martial arts, and Volkanovski’s five successful, consecutive title defenses over 1,526 days at the top of the 145-pound heap already have placed him among the legends of the sport.