The Panthers and Roosters junior claimed victory over American Rashad Coulter via a first round knockout, as he predicted, but it was not with a punch, but rather a flying knee - a remarkable move for a heavyweight.

"I saw his head and I was like 'I gotta give this a go' - and I did it, he went back and I'm like 'oh shit it worked!'"

"Bam Bam" entered the ring to a rousing rendition at Qudos Bank Arena, with Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles blaring, an Aboriginal flag draped around his shoulders and mentor Mark Hunt in the front row.

"This is my home town, this is my city - I was expecting that.

"There's not even an Aboriginal flag on top of the Harbour Bridge, so for me to carry that here on the world stage and have a bit of recognition, means a lot to me."

He became the first Indigenous fighter to claim a UFC victory, and has already expressed interest on backing up and fighting in Perth in February, saying "any show in Australia, I want to be on."

In the main event of the evening, Brazilian Fabricio Werdum, who took Hunt's place on the card, completely dominated Poland's Marcin Tybura, and a fight for heavyweight gold seems in his immediate future.

"I have two belts in my home, I want another one," he said, before saluting the heavy Brazilian presence in the crowd.

In the penultimate fight of the evening, it was a dream UFC debut for Jessica-Rose Clark, who took a decision win over fellow Aussie Bec Rawlings - a win made even more remarkable by the fact that she was only called in for the fight as a late replacement.

Victoria's Jake Matthews attempted to snap a two fight losing streak after moving up a weight class to take on Bojan Velickovic of Serbia, and got it done via a split decision in the closest fight of the evening.

"This was a very emotional fight for me. With my last two performances, I was very nervous coming in. I even cried before my walkout. I knew what was at stake here ... it's a huge weight off my chest to be back in the win column," Matthews said.

South coast native Alexander Volkanovski remained perfect in the UFC, with a comfortable unanimous decision win over New Zealand's Shane Young.

"I want some of these top guys," he said after the fight, his third consecutive win since signing with the promotion.

Earlier, Australia's Damien Brown stole the show but came up just short against Frank Camacho, in a three round slugfest that saw the man from the Mariana Islands claim a decision victory in what was one of the fights of the year, and highly-rated 22-year-old Nadia Kassem beat Alex Chambers in an all-Australian women's bout.

UFC Sydney full results (Australians in bold):

Fabr??cio Werdum def. Marcin Tybura via unanimous decision

Jessica-Rose Clark def. Bec Rawlings via split decision

Belal Muhammad def. Tim Means via split decision

Jake Matthews def. Bojan Velickovic via split decision

Elias Theodorou def. Dan Kelly via unanimous decision

Alexander Volkanovski def. Shane Young via unanimous decision

Ryan Benoit def. Ashkan Mokhtarian via knockout

Nik Lentz def. Will Brooks via submission

Tai Tuivasa def. Rashad Coulter via knockout

Frank Camacho def. Damien Brown via split decision

Nadia Kassem def. Alex Chambers Decision via unanimous decision

Eric Shelton def. Jenel Lausa via unanimous decision

Adam Wieczorek def. Anthony Hamilton via unanimous decision