Ambitious of taking his fight to the next level, and potential challenging for the division title, Rongzhu made no secret of his next move.

"Hey, listen, next I want to fight this Australian guy," Rongzhu called out Aussie striker Quillan Salkilld, a long-overdue opponent he expects to face. "I know you're hungry, young guy. Me, the same. Let's do it, brother!"

Rongzhu was originally scheduled to fight Salkilld at UFC 325 on Jan 31, but had to withdrew from the bout in a last-minute decision due to a sudden knee injury he suffered during his pre-fight training camp.

Rongzhu's bout against Martinez was staged as the special main event to headline the RTU talent-selection tournament's Season 5 opening round in Macao, where 32 MMA prospects from across the Asia-Pacific region compete in the "win-and-advance" knockout format for the opportunity to sign official UFC contracts in four divisions - women's strawweight, men's flyweight, bantamweight, and featherweight.

Beyond Rongzhu's main event TKO, Thursday night featured plenty of other thrilling actions throughout the RTU card. In the co-main event, another Chinese striker Xie Bin knocked out of Indonesia's Yudi Cahyadi in just two minutes in their featherweight bout.

Another featherweight contender Aheijiang Ailinuer, who's fighting out of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, defeated South Korea's Lim Gwan-woo via unanimous decision in their RTU quarterfinal bout to advance into the division semifinals and keep his dream of signing with UFC alive.

The highlight of the action-packed fight week will be an UFC Fight Night event on Saturday, headlined by an elite showdown in bantamweight between China's Song Yadong, the division's fifth-ranked contender, and former two-time UFC champion Deiveson Figueiredo of Brazil.

In Saturday's co-main, China's heavyweight pride Zhang Mingyang will take on super striker Alonzo Menifield of the United States in his second straight bout on home soil, following his loss to Brazil's Johnny Walker, via TKO, at the Fight Night Shanghai in August last year, and looks set to bounce back strong from the disappointing Shanghai night.