Israel Adesanya Defends His Middleweight Title, Defeats Robert Whittaker by Unanimous Decision To Retain Belt

Israel Adesanya Defends His Middleweight Title, Defeats Robert Whittaker by Unanimous Decision To Retain Belt

Byron Pillay
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:55 PM
  • Israel Adesanya is still the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title holder
  • The Last Stylebender beat Robert Whittaker in a highly anticipated rematch of their 2019 middleweight title fight
  • Nigeria's Adesanya is undefeated in the middleweight division and has remained champion for over two years

Nigeria’s Israel Adesanya is still the Undisputed Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Middleweight Champion.

The Last Stylebender beat Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 at the Toyota Centre in Houston, USA, Sports Brief monitored.

Israel Adesanya, Middleweight Title, Robert Whittaker, UFC, MMA, Sport
Israel Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker to defend his Middleweight title. Image: Mike Roach/ Christian Petersen/ Jeff Bottari
Source: Getty Images

Adesanya beat Whittaker in 2019 to win the Middleweight title, and he hasn’t dropped the belt since.

During their highly anticipated rematch, Adesanya got his title defence off to the perfect start when he landed a straight punch that dropped Whittaker to the floor.

The Last Stylebender wasn’t only threatening with his punches though, his devastating kicks also gave Whittaker cause for concern. During the first round alone, Adesanya landed over 10 kicks.

In the second round, Whittaker looked a bit more comfortable, a trend that continued into the third. He landed a few more punches and managed to take down the champ as well. Adesanya though showed why he is the champion as he scrambled out of every takedown without really taking any damage.

In the fourth round, Whittaker managed to take Adesanya’s back, and almost had a headlock. Fans in the stadium thought the end was near, but once again Adesanya fought out of it, easily turning the tide again.

Adesanya continued to work on the lead leg, throwing in a few head kicks as well.

Heading into the fifth round, Adesanya held a slight advantage according to the commentators, doing enough to win the majority of the rounds.

Whittaker once again came out strong in the fifth and final round and arguably it was his best round.

He pushed towards the end and tried to get more takedowns in, but Adesanya showed off his strength and experience as he negotiated it with ease. With time running out, Whittaker tried in vain to finish off Adesanya, tying him up against the cage, but the champ looked comfortable, still landing shots from the clinch.

Adesanya won the fight by majority decision, winning on all of the judges’ scorecards.

Adesanya remains undefeated in the middleweight division, winning 22 straight fights.

Cameroon's Francis Ngannou still the baddest man on the planet, defeats Ciryl Gane on points

Cameroon's Francis Ngannou retained the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title this morning after a unanimous points decision win over Cyril Gane. Ngannou, who hails from Batié in Cameroon won the fight on all three of the judges' scorecards, Sports Brief reported.

Ngannou is nicknamed The Predator and his punching power is legendary, but it was his ground game that won him the fight. Coming into the fight with both his legs sporting knee pads, many thought that Gane would target the legs.

He didn't need to though as for the first two rounds, he stayed out of range of Ngannou's power and racked up some easy points. Ngannou looked less like the beast he normally is as he failed to land significant blows. He came out in the third round though with a new game plan and used his strength to ground Gane.

Authors
Byron Pillay photo
Byron Pillay
Byron Pillay is a sports writer and Head of the Department at Sports Brief (joined in 2022) with over 10 years of experience in community journalism and a degree in journalism from Caxton's Cadet School.
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