Aldo battles past Edgar

The 26-year-old Brazilian won his 15th straight fight after batting past his opponent at the Mandalay Bay Center as Edgar came up short again, suffering his third straight defeat.

At the end of a gruelling five rounds of action the scorecards read 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in favour of Aldo, who is now 22-1, which includes six consecutive UFC and WEC title defences.

New Jersey native Edgar, who lost back-to-back fights against Benson Henderson heading into this bout suffered some heavy leg kicks and a bloodied face after some trademark combination blows from Aldo.

However, the 31-year-old staged a late rally as Aldo ditched the strikes from the earlier rounds, but ultimately, he came up short.

After the contest, Aldo explained his reasons for his tactics, saying: "I knew he was going to take me down if I kept throwing kicks so I had to go to my punches."

Meanwhile, Edgar lamented suffering another narrow loss. "Another close one," he said. "I keep finding myself in these situations. It is what it is, though. Congrats to Jose on a great fight."

Ricardo Lamas and Dong Hyun Kim are now in contention to take on Aldo for his title after his victory.

Marquee bouts

In the second of the marquee bouts, light heavyweight Rogerio Nogueira outboxed Rashad Evans to claim the win thanks to a unanimous points decision.

Meanwhile, Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva completely flattened Alistair Overeem inside the Octagon as he earned a TKO over the fellow heavyweight after 25 seconds of the third round.

And Demian Maia beat power wrestler Jon Fitch thanks to a unanimous decision after controlling the contest on the canvas for 15 gruelling minutes.