Israel Adesanya Defends His UFC Middleweight Title By Defeating Jared Cannonier
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Israel Adesanya proved once again that he's the king of the UFC middleweight's, with a relatively routine title defence against Jared Cannonier.
π₯ π§ππ πππ¦π§ π¦π§π¬πππππ‘πππ₯ π₯@stylebender defeats Jared Cannonier and retains his UFC Middleweight Championship! π#UFC276 pic.twitter.com/5jVeeZWL8S
β UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) July 3, 2022
No one has been able to get close to Adesanya during his run in the 185 lb division in UFC, winning 22 fights in-a-row ahead of UFC 276.
On Saturday night he continued that dominance of the middleweights with a victory over Cannonier, in a fight that never looked like going any other way.
Cannonier had certainly earned his shot at the champion, having won five of his six fights at the weight and only coming up short against former champ Robert Whittaker.
But the Killa Gorilla could barely land anything significant of the Last Stylebender, who remained elusive throughout whilst landing enough shots of his own to always be ahead.
Fans began getting restless during the fifth round hoping that either man would become more aggressive, but the challenger couldn't get going and the champion didn't need to do anything else.
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Adesanya won the title in 2019, defeating Whittaker, and it's been relatively easy for the 32-year-old in his title defences since becoming undisputed champion.
The Nigerian born New Zealander defeated Yoel Romero, in one of the most boring title fights in UFC history, before beating Paulo Costa with a third round stoppage, after many had expected the Brazilian to be far more dangerous than he ended up being.
After losing to Jan Blachowicz in a fight for the Pole's light heavyweight title, Adesanya went on to beat Marvin Vettori for the second time in his career, and then Whittaker again.
His win over Cannonier wasn't all that exciting, with the best moment coming in his entrance, as he came out to the music used by WWE legend, the Undertaker.
The king keeps his crown π #ANDSTILL
β UFC (@ufc) July 3, 2022
[ @Stylebender | #UFC276 | B2YB @OnePlus_USA ] pic.twitter.com/WDgiqa5PF7
Adesanya's next title defence could certainly be his toughest one yet, despite it seeming like he' completely cleaned out the division already.
That's because he's likely be facing the only man to have ever stopped him in a fight, in the shape of Brazilian Alex Pereira, who beat the champion in a kickboxing fight in 2017.
Pereira won earlier on Saturday night, at UFC 276, in a fight against number four ranked Sean Strickland, knocking the American out in the first round.
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Featured Image Credit: UFC
Topics:Β UFC, Israel Adesanya, MMA
