It was one of the most highly-anticipated UFC fights of the year.
So when the first round ticked away with very little contact made between Kiwi Israel Adesanya and opponent Yoel Romero, fans were left wondering what to think.
Round one ended with just seven strikes before a chorus of boos from the crowd rung loud and Adesanya became increasingly frustrated by his opponent's strange tactics.
Romero didn't look like he wanted to do anything apart from stand still. And it didn't get much better.
The two men remained at a distance dancing around the Octagon before the referee gave them a word of warning at the start of the fourth round.
"You're getting paid for a championship fight," he said.
The unusual defence continued to play out throughout the fight but the longer the bout went on, Adesanya took control and used the distance to land nasty kick after kick.
Romero's leg began to get increasingly redder as the kicks kept landing from the champ.
In the end, Adesanya defended his title by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46).
However, fans expressed frustration with the fight on social media, and MMA senior writer Shaheen Al-Shatti even reported fans were leaving the fight by the fourth round.
"Noticeable amount of people are heading for the exits in this arena right now. Midway through the fifth round," he posted.

Italy took a page from China's playbook Sunday, locking down around 16 million people — more than a quarter of its population — for nearly a month to halt the relentless march of the new coronavirus across Europe.
Weddings, museums, movie theatres shopping malls, and even restaurants are all hit by the new restrictions, which focus on a swath of northern Italy but are disrupting daily life around the country. After mass testing uncovered more than 7300 infections, Italy now has registered more cases of the virus than any country but China, where it's now on the retreat.
From Venice to Milan, confusion reigned as residents and tourists tried to figure out when and how the new measures were coming into effect. Travellers crammed aboard standing-room only trains, tucking their faces into scarves and sharing sanitizing gel.
Around the globe, more and more events were canceled or hidden behind closed doors, from the pope's Sunday service to a Formula One car race in Bahrain and a sumo competition in Japan. Questions grew about whether to maintain US presidential campaign rallies and other potentially "super-spreading" gatherings, as the virus stretches into new states.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte signed a quarantine decree early yesterday for the country's prosperous north. Areas under lockdown include Milan, Italy's financial hub and the main city in Lombardy, and Venice, the main city in the neighboring Veneto region. The extraordinary measures will be in place until April 3.
The fate of foreign visitors stuck in Italy's new quarantine zones is still unclear.
The pope, who has been ill, held his Sunday blessing by video instead of in person, even though he wasn't directly affected by the lockdown. He described feeling like he was "in a cage."

A sign advises that Colosseum will be closed, following the government's new prevention measures on public gatherings, in Rome yesterday. Photo / AP
It's a feeling familiar in China, where the government locked down about 60 million people in central Hubei province in late January. Six weeks later, they're still effectively stuck.
The World Health Organization has said China's move helped the rest of the world prepare for the virus to arrive, and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted his support yesterday for Italians and their "bold, courageous steps aimed at slowing the speed of the coronavirus."
China has suffered about three-fourths of the world's 109,000 coronavirus infections and most of its nearly 3,800 deaths. New infections in China have leveled off dramatically, however, and most of those infected, in China and globally, have already recovered.
Infections mounted higher yesterday in other epicentres - South Korea, Iran and especially Italy. And with a nose-dive in tourist traffic and major disruptions to supply chains worldwide, stocks struggled Sunday as Mideast indexes fell 4 per cent to 10 per cent.
Italy is closing all museums and archaeological sites, even those far from the lockdown zone. It suspended all weddings until April 3. The northern regions concerned by Sunday's decree are closing cinemas and ski slopes.
Eateries all around Italy are expected, somehow, to keep patrons a metre away from each other.
The Vatican Museums are now closed, including the Sistine Chapel, in yet another blow to Italy's all-important tourism industry. Alitalia, the Italian airline which was already financially ailing before the virus, suspended all national and international flights from Milan's Malpensa airport starting Monday.
Lombardy's governor, who is in quarantine himself, sought to calm the public, discouraging hoarding and insisting "we're not going to war."
Chaos erupted in the hours before Conte signed the decree, as word leaked about the planned quarantine. Italy is up to 7375 cases as of Saturday, and the death toll in the country rose to 366.
Students at the University of Padua...

A tiny homes manufacturer says legislation for mobile dwellings must be independent from the Building Act.
A petition's been delivered to Parliament, asking the Government to legitimise tiny homes as a permanent accommodation solution.
Mobile homes lined up to mark the handover of the four thousand strong petition.
Colin Wightman told Kate Hawkesby the homes should be a viable option for residents.
"We consider the building act to be a dinosaur.
"This is not about a free ride for tiny houses, it's about having seperate regulations and fee structures, it's about protecting their future."
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The Ministry of Health has confirmed a fourth positive coronavirus test in New Zealand - the husband of a woman already infected.
The man, in his 30s, returned with his wife from a trip to Italy last week - they have children at two North Shore high schools, which have also been alerted. The family is in isolation, and have been subject to social media bullying.
"Contact tracing is under way and close contacts are already in self-isolation," the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
It said further details would be provided later today as well as any results of other testing around the country.
Earlier, the wife of the fourth case had already revealed her husband had also tested positive, bringing the numbers of cases in this country to four.
The woman, who had visited northern Italy, has been in isolation at her Auckland home with her husband and two high-school aged children.
The Herald revealed yesterday the woman had been seen at the Westgate Medical Centre, where protocols had been followed - but a staff member told the Herald they were upset they had only found out about the confirmed case in the news.
The woman insisted yesterday she had tried to follow all medical advice, including visits to two medical centres.
"People assume we are these monsters that have all these symptoms out in public infecting people. We've had very, very, very few symptoms," the woman told Stuff.
"Can you imagine my children going back to school at this point? There are already people pulling their kids out of school when they've been told really clearly that there is absolutely zero threat to their children."
Both schools the children attend, Westlake Boys' and Girls' high schools, have been alerted.
Health officials were yesterday also contacting 100 passengers who travelled on two domestic flights between Palmerston North and Auckland with the infected woman before she was diagnosed.
But the Ministry of Health maintains the chance of widespread community outbreak remains low.
Asked whether parents had kept kids home from the two schools yesterday, Ministry of Education deputy secretary Katrina Casey said: "We are aware that both schools experienced more student absences than is usual for this time of the year but we know they are following our normal procedures for responding to unexplained absences."
On Tuesday night, health officials called for calm and restraint after "sustained bullying" on social media of a family in isolation.
In Thursday's briefing Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield called out the "keyboard warriors" who have been critical of those impacted by the disease.









People affected by the virus should not be criticised, he said.
"We don't want to be counter-productive and discourage people from coming forward."
The Westgate clinic says it followed Auckland Regional Public Health guidelines and the patient didn't make close contact with anyone but the doctor, but a staff member told the Herald because they were concerned more people could now be at risk of exposure.
The medical clinic was itself busy, and located in a busy West Auckland shopping centre.
The staffer was disappointed the medical centre had failed to inform staff that the woman was a confirmed case.
They were also concerned at her first diagnosis at a different clinic where she was prescribed antibiotics - which won't help cure coronavirus - and then sent on her way.
The person now felt an obligation to let the public know that the infected woman had been through the urgent care clinic on Monday.
"The person came in as an urgent care walk-in patient. The clinic does have a protocol, an isolation room specifically designated for people and unfortunately the situation happened in which the patient didn't identify themselves as someone that may have been at risk, even though we do...

Midwives aren't getting paid for 20 per cent of the work they do - and a $50 million annual injection into the sector is needed urgently.
That's from a report out this morning into sustainable midwifery, and the outcome finds the profession is anything but.
It reveals most midwives are working more than 40 hours a week, looking after 40 to 45 women.
Report co-author and NZIER deputy chief executive Todd Krieble joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss what is needed to revolutionise the industry. 
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If you're a farmer right now, it's fair to say there's a lot of pressure on you to make your business even greener.
Proposals to greenify the industry include the freshwater proposals around nitrate levels, through to the 2025 deadline when agriculture will be brought into the ETS.
A new business venture called ‘Calm the Farm’ is aiming to match up investors with farmers who want to transition to regenerative agriculture
Mike Taitoko is the acting chief executive of Calm the Farm, and joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss what’s the interest for farmers to change their habits.
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A call for calm heads, following the confirmation of a second case of coronavirus in New Zealand.
An Auckland woman has tested positive for Covid-19, while test results on her partner are expected back today.
Their children have been attending high schools on Auckland's North Shore -- and she flew to Palmerston North and back on Monday -- raising fears of a community outbreak.
Speaking to ZB's Kate Hawkesby this morning, Otago University Professor of Public Health Michael Baker said people should be ready for a community outbreak - and should start staying home if they have respiratory illness.
Baker has previously expressed concerns at New Zealand's lack of preparedness for a pandemic, but he said the current approach to the virus was "very reasonable".
That meant banning arrivals from certain places and requiring self-quarantine from others.
But he said people should be ready for the disease to move to a community outbreak phase - and at that point the response should be very different.
"We have to now start planning for the idea that there will be at a certain point a move into the management phase when containment is no longer possible and you have community transmission."
While he said it was possible nobody in New Zealand had yet been infected, people with respiratory illness should be staying home from work and school and not socialising.
Data out of China showed that there were three key symptoms of Covid-19 - fever, cough and fatigue (feeling unwell and weak).
"We have to get in the habit now, if you develop those symptoms, regardless of if you've been overseas or in New Zealand - just stay at home."
Baker said people's panic buying was understandable, given the scenes of chaos overseas.
"The message now is prepare, don't panic. That's easy to say, everyone has varying levels of anxiety. But the thing that will get us through this is ... just good preparation, listening to instructions and information coming out of the Ministry of Health - they are really doing an extremely good job on this."

His front-runner status slipping, Bernie Sanders refocused his Democratic presidential campaign on surging rival Joe Biden on Wednesday as the Vermont senator's allies grappled with the fallout from a Super Tuesday stumble that raised internal concerns about the direction of his White House bid.
Sanders targeted Biden's record on trade, Social Security and fundraising just hours after billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his campaign and Elizabeth Warren confirmed she was privately reassessing her future in the race. The dramatic shifts signaled that the Democrats' once-crowded nomination fight had effectively come down to a two-man race for the right to face President Donald Trump in November.
Sanders declared himself “neck and neck” with Biden as he faced reporters in his home state, Vermont, one of just four states he captured on the most consequential day of voting in the party's 2020 primary season. Biden won 10 states, assembling victories that transcended geography, race and class.
“What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is, Which side are you on?” Sanders said.
The progressive candidate lobbed familiar attacks against the former vice president's record but ignored supporters' calls to be more aggressive and insisted his campaign would avoid any “Trump-type effort” that included personal criticism.
“I like Joe. I think he’s a decent human being," Sanders said. "Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country.”
Biden told reporters he would unify the country and, without naming Sanders, knocked the senator's frequent contention that he is beholden to an elite party establishment.
“The establishment are all those hard-working people" who voted on Tuesday, Biden told reporters in West Hollywood, California.
Elected officials and leading donors rallied around Biden after his Super Tuesday romp. Top Democrats have long been skeptical of the 77-year-old lifelong politician's political strength but raced to unite behind him to blunt Sanders' rise.
After suspending his campaign, Bloomberg became the fourth failed Democratic presidential contender this week to endorse Biden. Like the growing chorus of Democratic officials, Bloomberg called Biden the best chance to defeat Trump in the general election.
Warren's future was uncertain.
Sanders confirmed that he spoke to his progressive ally earlier in the day, though it was unclear whether she would endorse him — or anyone else — should she leave the race. Warren didn't win a single state on Super Tuesday and finished in third place in her home state of Massachusetts.
A resurgent Biden, meanwhile, was poised to finish Super Tuesday with more delegates than Sanders — a stunning shift. Sanders' team had hoped he would finish the night more than 100 delegates ahead of his next closest competitor. He'll likely finish dozens of delegates behind once all the votes are counted.
Biden's allies sought to quickly capitalize on his success and take on Sanders. Biden campaign co-chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, blasted Sanders for suggesting that the Democratic establishment was colluding against him. Richmond said Biden is earning his votes.
"I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment," the Louisiana Democrat said, noting that Biden's overwhelming support among black voters gave him wide delegate gains in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia, among other states.
The Sanders campaign announced it would begin airing three new campaign ads across states holding the next series of primary contests on March 10 and March 17: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington state.
One new ad features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. It's a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Biden's frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama.

COMMENT
You may or may not be aware of the open letter microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles wrote to National Party leader Simon Bridges yesterday.
She wants him to tone down his criticisms of the Government and its handling of the coronavirus. Basically to stop politicising it and just band together and be more supportive.
He's upset that he's objected to the official response from the Government to this outbreak, and she's disappointed in his comments which she says, are based on anecdotal feedback, instead of facts.
But worse than Bridges actually, in my view, is his Hamilton East MP David Bennett. He was busy telling listeners to a local Hamilton radio station that people "should" be out there bulk buying.
Are you kidding me? This is a time for cool heads and grown-ups, not point-scoring and promoting panic.
He was saying we should be out buying food - we should be stockpiling.

David Bennett. File photo / supplied
Why? Why on earth would he ignore the official advice of every expert in this wider health situation, every authority figure right up to the Prime Minister who have said remain calm, there's no need for all that urgent extra toilet paper; there's no need to snap up all the hand sanitiser.
All this political point-scoring and focus on the supermarket shelf-emptying habits of Aucklanders, is enormously frustrating for those at the coal face of the economic impact of this outbreak.
For small businesses who're not getting enough access to enough information, for rest homes who've been told they'll be contacted with protocols, but haven't yet been. For forestry families who are without work and doing it really tough.
One woman, from a forestry family, wrote to me this week. Her husband is down to three days a week's work which is hurting the family budget. She said he's looking down the barrel of whole weeks of no work.
Relocating isn't an option for them with kids in schools and sports teams, and the expense of moving. Her husband's seriously considering a job offer to clear burnt bush in Australia for the next few months just to get by, which is not ideal for family life either, but they're running out of options.
Truck drivers and their companies are hurting too.
So there's a whole lot of other areas politicians on all sides could focus on helping, instead of unhelpfully sitting on radio stations suggesting people rush to buy more toilet paper.
If you are feeling sick, what should you do?
Anybody with specific concerns should phone Healthline's dedicated Covid-19 number 0800 358 5453 (or +64 9 358 5453 for international SIM) or contact their GP, including phoning ahead.

Eco-anxiety is growing among our children.
A UK study has found that one in five 16-year-olds are having nightmares about climate change.
One possible reason for that is that 41 per cent of them don't trust the adults in charge to tackle it.
Psychologist Sara Chatwin told Kate Hawkesby that news coverage is likely fuelling it, and by not having conversations about it would raise their anxiety. 
"We're talking about children. We're talking about human beings who are not as cognitively complex as adults and who perhaps don't have all the information that they want and need." 
She says that she believes the anxiety may be beginning a lot younger than 16 - and that she knows of five year olds who are worried about climate change and other big news stories. 
Chatwin says that the children are repressing their feelings and aren't getting it out, and parents need to allow the conversations to happen.
"You can't talk to a three year old the way you'd talk to a 13 year old. You have to choose your language very carefully, and the younger the child, the less complex and the more concrete you should keep your language."