Charles Oliveira's chokehold stops Arizona's Justin Gaethje in UFC 274 main event

Justin Gaethje had all of the huge Footprint Center crowd behind him, his chance at the UFC lightweight title his alone after champion Charles Oliveira was forced to vacate the belt due to a failure to make weight.

But Oliveira, dropped to contender status for his violation, stole the show in UFC 274's main event with a rear naked chokehold submission win over Gaethje at 3:22 of the first round Saturday night.

Gaethje (23-4) lost for the fourth time in his UFC career. The Safford native started off well, despite Oliveira (33-8) appearing to flop after a punch Gaethje threw, but was knocked down with an Oliveira right hook and never recovered. Oliveira went quickly to the ground and took advantage of the opening to walk out of the arena victorious.

It was a sudden ending to a long day and night of UFC, a clear hit with fight fans in the Phoenix metro area, judging by the sellout crowd of 17,232 with no readily visible empty seats.

"The work that everybody puts in, it paid off. It just goes to show that the champion has a name, and it's Charles Oliveira," he said. "I knew I was going to get hit, I knew I was going to hit him. But it all came down to 'who wants it more.'"

Carla Esparza won the women's straw weight title from Rose Namajunas in a rematch eight years in the making, that for most of its five rounds lacked the action fans had hoped for.

Both fighters made unsuccessful attempts at taking each other down, and as the fight went into its final minute, boos rained down on the octagon.

With 10 seconds left, Namajunas tackled Esparza, but nothing came of it. Esparza was awarded the title belt on a split decision as even louder boos cascaded from the stands. All Esparza could do was shrug her shoulders and hug her corner attendants.

"That's always a bummer. You always want to put on a show for the fans," Esparza said. "I did what I could."

Esparza, whose wedding is next week, said she'd welcome a rematch and will wear her championship belt around her dress.

Fifteen fights were on the original schedule, but the first bout of the main card was canceled when it was announced that Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone could not take part due to a non-COVID-19 related illness. Cerrone, 39, is 36-16 over a long career that started almost 15 years ago. After a year since his last fight, he was scheduled to meet Joe Lauzon in a lightweight bout.

The Cerrone-Lauzon cancellation moved the welterweight fight between Khaos Williams and Randy Brown up to the main card.

With sports figures Kyler Murray, Dwight Howard, Clayton Keller, Jakob Chychrun and former UFC champions Henry Cejudo and Chuck Liddell among those in attendance, the main card started with Brown winning a split decision. The decision was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd for the native of Jamaica.

The crowd wasn't feeling the Mauricio "Shogun" Rua-Ovince Saint Preux fight, and at one point, many fans turned on their cell phone lights just to pass the time and have a little fun during the second round.

Saint Preux won a split decision, and the stage was set for the three most hyped fights of the night.

Tony Ferguson vs. Michael Chandler, a contest among lightweight contenders, had some juice to it after Ferguson had asserted that Chandler had "Dana White privilege" in reference to being in the UFC president's good graces.

The crowd was behind the outspoken Ferguson from the start, even more so after he scored a first-round knockdown. But Chandler bull-rushed Ferguson to the ground, and blood trickled out of Ferguson's left eye before the round ended.

Seventeen seconds into the second round, Chandler connected with a big kick to Ferguson's chin, and Ferguson crumpled to the floor unconscious. The fight was stopped.

Ferguson was able to stand and leave the ring, while Chandler loudly called out for a spot in a main event.

"My body just moved, foot to face and a couple of backflips," Chandler said, describing his vicious fight-ending kick and the flips he did to celebrate it.

"Greatest front kick knockout I've ever seen," said UFC commentator Daniel Cormier, who was inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Ferguson was transported to a hospital and White did not have an update on his status after all of the fights had ended.

In a preliminary bout, André Fialho of Portugal by way of Miami felled Indiana's Cameron VanCamp with a left hook midway through the first round, delivering the first knockout of the evening.

Before that, in the third fight of the day, Phoenix's Tracy Cortez scored a unanimous decision win over Melissa Gatto in a battle that went the three-round distance. Cortez, 28, improved to 10-1 and basked in the cheers of the hometown crowd when walking into the octagon and while having her hand raised in victory.

Cortez said people close to her laughed at her when she told them she'd fight in UFC one day. She's won 10 straight fights.

"Keep on believing in yourself," she told fighting hopefuls during her post-fight interview. "If I can do it, you can do it, too!"

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Charles Oliveira's chokehold stops Arizona's Justin Gaethje in UFC 274 main event