The gloves -- and tops -- were off tonight. Perhaps because the competition for Best Shirtless Performance at this year's MTV Movie Awards got a little heated.

So who emerged victorious? A buff, sun-kissed, spiky-haired Zac Efron! Lucky for us, he'd already promised via Twitter to [article id="1725847"]accept his award shirtless[/article] should he win, so -- ever a man of his word -- the buttons flew. We wonder if he did push-ups backstage to prepare.

Introduced by a muscle suit-bound Conan O'Brien, presenters Rita Ora and Jessica Alba gave "the Oscar for Abs" to Efron, who ascended the stage and took his sweet time following Ora's directive to "Please take your shirt off."

"I don't really know what to say, but thank you so much to my fans," Efron exclaimed, Golden Popcorn in hand. The short statement proved to be simply too much time spent clothed, as Ora saw fit to interrupt his speech by running up behind him and ripping open his denim shirt, revealing his bronzed physique in all its glory.

The Hollywood elite bods bested by Efron in the category, who won for his performance as a serial-dating 20-something in "That Awkward Moment," include the God of Thunder himself, Thor (otherwise known as the impressively chiseled Chris Hemsworth), along with mere mortals like America's Sweetheart Jennifer Aniston (who showed off some crazy toned abs during her "We're the Millers" strip scene), Leonardo DiCaprio as cold-hard-cash-and-coke-writhing Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street," and self-absorbed survivalist Sam Claflin of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."

Efron's smoking bod scored points for corporeal beings everywhere -- we're guessing the gyms of Asgard will be rumbling as the Norse god attempts to save face (and blow off steam) after his defeat. And Efron won't be covering that taut torso any time soon: You can catch more of him sans shirt in the upcoming film "Neighbors," out May 9.

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