Tobias Sylvester
UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has defeated America’s Jared Cannonier to retain his middleweight title in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 276.
Israel Adesanya vs Jared Cannonier
The 32-year-old Nigerian mixed martial artist was adjudged the winner over the ‘Gorilla’ in a unanimous decision (49-46,49-46, 50-45) at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.
The first round saw Cannonier struggled to contain with the low kicks and a couple of piston-like jabs from ‘Izzy’.
Adesanya toyed with his opponent in the second round while the American martial artist lacked the technical prowess to do much damage to his opponent.
Round three saw Cannonier making a few unsuccessful attempts to take down Adesanya.
The ‘Last Stylebender’, who thrilled fans with a homage to WWE star The Undertaker in his walkout, was too strong for his challenger as he defended his title.
The Nigerian-born New Zealander has successfully defended his middleweight category title five times now after unifying the belt with Whittaker in 2019.
He is dubbed the number one pound-for-pound fighter in his category.
Adesanya (23-1) is undefeated at 185 pounds, a perfect 11-0 in the UFC in that weight class.
KanyiDaily recalls that five months ago, Israel Adesanya also defeated a former champion, Robert Whittaker, by unanimous decision to retain his UFC middleweight title.
