Martial arts star Mason ‘The Dragon’ Jones secured his first win in the Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon cage, beating Uganda’s David Onama by a unanimous points decision in Las Vegas.

The 27-year-old Blaenavon lightweight has endured a frustrating start to his UFC career with a split decision defeat on his debut to American Mike Davis - his only career loss to date - and a no contest last June against Brazilian Alan Patrick after an accidental eye poke in the second round when Jones was in firm control.

All three judges scored the latest fight narrowly to the Welshman 29-28 after a tougher than expected fight.

Ugandan Onama was in his first UFC bout, fighting on short notice after Patrick withdrew from the rematch.

Jones admitted he was surprised the fight went the distance, saying he felt ‘gassed’ later in the fight after a cut left him unable to train properly.

“I didn’t expect that, I thought I’d have him (Onama) standing up,” he said.

“I caught him early on in the first and thought I could put the pressure on and my gas tank just disappeared.

“I’ve never gassed in 13 fights and that’s the first time I felt tired. So I don’t know if it was my cut, because I lost so much weight during my cut that I hardly had to cut anything in the morning, so I don’t know if I messed something up, so it’s a learning experience.

“It’s not the big performance I wanted to make, I thought after I caught him in the first with a jab and I rocked him, smart pressure now and you’ll have him but I was just gassed, a standing punchbag.”

The Welshman was a hot favourite, with a significant size advantage, but had to dig deep to win.

Jones used his judo and wrestling background to take the contest to the ground several times, and after 15 minutes of fighting, all three judges gave him the win by a margin of two rounds to one.

He posted afterwards: “Tough test, bad performance. Rest up over Xmas then go again…”