Israel Adesanga Beats Whittaker To Retain UFC Middleweight Title

Nigerian- New Zealand Israel Adesanya has defeated Robert Whittaker via unanimous decision at UFC271 to retain the middleweight crown at the Toyota Center in Houston, United States, BSNSports.com.ng gathered. All three judges scored the rematch 49-46, 48-47, 48-47 in favour of Adesanya at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on Sunday. The first round saw the Aussie shoot a naked takedown but the ‘Last Stylebender’ was composed and confident enough to repel it with ease. Before the round ended, Adesanya landed calf kicks and found a home for his right hooks, visibly rattling Whittaker. While the fight was more competitive than their first bout, Adesanya’s ability to control distance, counter strike and defensive wrestling were too much for the challenger to overcome. Whittaker’s inability to safely close the distance was a prevailing theme throughout the early going. He was able to land a takedown in Round 2, but it didn’t take long for The Last Stylebender to work his way back to the feet. Adesanya’s ability to control where the fight took place was the biggest story as the fight developed. Whittaker had some success when he doubled up his jab, but Adesanya met most of his attacks with a sharp counter-punching. That advantage temporarily switched to Whittaker for a moment in Round 4. He was able to capitalize on an Adesanya mistake to take his back and attempted a standing rear-naked choke but he couldn’t get it locked in. Adesanya had the upper hand for the majority of the fight but the rounds were just competitive enough that the judges could have had some interesting scores. The win puts an exclamation mark on his success against Whittaker in his career. He took the belt from Bobby Knuckles to kick off his title reign at 185 pounds. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, he’s now added him to the list of challengers who have failed to take his crown. The win is the end of a good week for The Last Stylebender. On Wednesday, his management team announced a new contract with the UFC. After that, Adesanya has successfully defended his title three times and recorded the first loss of his career last year when he moved up to challenge Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title.