Israel Adesanya successfully defended his UFC Middleweight Championship title for the third time after gaining the vote of the three judges as he faced Marvin Vettori for the second time. The two met in 2018 where Izzy was only able to gain two of the judges’ votes to win the match. But three years later, all the judges agreed that Adesanya was the better fighter. This is his first win of the year after losing to Jan Blachowicz after facing him back in February in the light heavyweight division.
The first round started with much power from Vettori who was quickly met with kicks from Adesanya. Vettori longed for a takedown but Izzy was always quick to avoid going under by sticking to the fence, making things harder for the Italian Dream. Adesanya continues landing his kicks, mocking Vettori in the process, in his usual fashion. Vettori then tried to take control in the second round as he avoided most of Adesanya’s kicks, delivering kicks of his own.
Adesanya switched things up in the third round, gaining his strength back. At this point, Adesanya already knew that the only way to wear his opponent out was through kicks. Vettori had Adesanya in a half guard position and gave the champ quite a tough time, but Adesanya was able to free himself. Later in the round, Izzy drops Vettori with a leg kick and manages to land a low blow just before the round ended.
The next two rounds continued with more low kicks from Adesanya, this time making it harder as he was determined to weaken Vettori as much as possible. But Vettori kept pressing forward and managed to stay on his feet down to the fifth round. Izzy also took some hits too. It was a fight of two people who seemed evenly matched, although Izzy had the upper hand as was evident by the final vote, where the three judges gave the fight “50-45’ in favour of Adesanya.
After the fight, Israel called out Robert Whittaker, the man he fought to win the UFC Middleweight Championship title, calling for a rematch.
Written by: Leon Osamor
Kawhi Leonard is officially a Toronto Raptors player again after the NBA approved his trade… Read More
Matt Donohue, the Video Assistant Referee involved in Sunday’s Premier League clash between Manchester City… Read More
AS Roma have maintained their perfect record in this season’s Italian Serie A with another… Read More
Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina won the 2026 US Open singles titles in New York,… Read More
Gabriel Jesus has admitted he faces a difficult battle for regular playing time at Barcelona,… Read More
Arsenal are set to contact refereeing body Pro Ref to seek an explanation over the… Read More