Isreal Adesanya overcame American Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) to retain his UFC middlewieight title on Sunday.
Both fighters came into the bout with impressive records, but after five rounds, Isreal remained undefeated in the category and even had the time to call out a likely next opponent, Alex Pereira who shared a UFC 276 fight card.
Since his UFC debut in 2018, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has remained undefeated in the middleweight category.
Round 1: Quite uneventful. Both men taking time to size each other up and landing body shots.
Round 2: Cannonier taking the fight to Adesanya and forcing him to back into the corner occassionally. The fight is temporarily stopped as Cannonier has to have his right eye checked. The round ends with Adesanya on top landing a big body shot.
Round 3: Cannonier send a left-right combination that fails to meet Adesanya. He tries to wrestle Adesanya to the ground unsuccessfully and both fighters exchnange body shots. He tries again to wrestle Adesanya to the ground but fails. Cannonier coming closer to Adesanya, gets a clinch and forces him into the corner. Cannonier tries digging his knees into Adesanya’s who manages to free himself and sends a head kick which brings the round to an end.
Round 5: Final round underway. Cannonier rushes out of his corner and is checked by Adesanya. Both fighters get into a clinch and back into the corner. Cannonier digging into Adesanya’s knees. Cannonier attempting a take down which fails and follows it up with a double jab. Adesanya replies with a head kick. The round ends.
