Fight night in New Jersey belongs to Long Island.

Aljamain Sterling eked out a tight split decision victory over former two-division champion Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 in Newark, setting a new record for consecutive UFC bantamweight title defenses with his third.

“Close fight, but I definitely thought I won and edged it out,” Sterling told reporters after the victory.

Sterling, a former two-time All-American wrestler at SUNY Cortland, and 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle Henry Cejudo tested each other’s grappling chops throughout, with each finding success in the takedown department but Sterling getting to moderately more threatening positions.

“I think I’m an Olympic gold medalist now,” Sterling said with pride for holding own with four successful takedowns compared to Cejudo’s three. “I knew I was gonna do better in the clinch.”

Kicks played a big part in Sterling’s standup offense — as they often do — with the champion working the legs and body.

Cejudo, who has eight knockouts on his ledger, had trouble landing the big punch he was looking to set up throughout.”

By the end, Cejudo’s face bore the marks of battle, particularly a bruise under his right eye.

Sterling’s face, by comparison, was relatively unmarked.

“Aljo was awkward as hell,” Cejudo told reporters of Sterling, nicknamed “Funkmaster.” “And if you don’t have those right guys to mimic him, it’s just different. It’s just different because he’s a freestyler.”

After the fight, top contender Sean O’Malley was brought into the octagon for what became a testy, expletive-laden faceoff in front of 17,559 at sold-out Prudential Center.

Sterling now holds wins over four of the six previous UFC bantamweight champions: Cejudo, TJ Dillashaw, Petr Yan and Renan Barao.

“Good luck to anyone chasing that résumé because it’s gonna be very tough to beat,” Sterling said.

Earlier in the night, Sterling’s Longo and Weidman MMA teammate Matt Frevola thrilled the Newark crowd with a first-round TKO of Drew Dober.

Frevola, whom Mets owner Steve Cohen came to see, picked apart the hard-hitting veteran from the outside before dropping Dober with a right and finishing him off with heavy hands on the mat.
The spectacular victory netted Sterling the first $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus of his UFC tenure.

“Welcome to the top 15, baby!” Sterling declared of Frevola.

The biggest winners outside the metropolitan area came in the two bouts preceding the championship fight.

Belal Muhammad earned a convincing decision victory over Gilbert Burns to set up a likely future welterweight title shot in non-title, five-round action.

Yan Xiaonan scored a first-round TKO of Jessica Andrade in an upset that paves the way for a potential all-China strawweight title fight against champion Zhang Weili.