UFC 276: How Brutal Fighter Israel Adesanya Defeated Cannonier to Retain UFC Middleweight Title

• UFC 276 went down at the T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas and saw Israel Adesanya defeat his challenger Jared Cannonier
• The Nigerian-born New Zealander was exciting during the bout, flashing a flurry of punches at the American fighter
• ‘The Last Stylebender’ proved beyond doubt that he remains the king of the middleweight category, winning by unanimous decision

Israel Adesanya has retained the UFC middleweight title after defeating Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) in the wee hours of Sunday.

The 32-year-old Nigerian-born New Zealand superstar battled against the impressive Cannonier at UFC 276 inside the T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Having made his debut in 2018, Adesanya has continued to class anytime he gets into the Octagon and he once again proved his mettle to remain undefeated in the middleweight category.

In 2019, ‘The Last Stylebender’ won the interim title in the Fight of The Year winner against Kelvin Gastelum, before beating Robert Whittaker in a unified bout the same year.

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Daily Mail reports that ‘Izzy’ has now defended the title four times as his only loss in the ring was to the then-champion Jan Blachowicz.

Adesanya has now successfully defended the title for a fifth tie as Cannonier struggled to get a takedown in the last round of their bout while Adesanya was cautious as the crowd got restless.

How it went down

In Round one, Adesanya and his opponent threw a flurry of leg kicks without a touch of gloves, but the champion had an edge after winging an overhand right.

At the start of the second round, the Nigerian-born boxer landed a good early jab and used his strength to prevent his opponent from getting inside.

In Round Three, Adesanya hit a number of short shots onto Cannonier’s head while the American held the clinch and kneed at the champ’s legs.

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Cannonier started the fourth round in a better fashion landing a little right hand early in the round but Adesanya tamed him with a hard jab.

The defending champion landed clean jabs, Cannonier fired back with a flurry of punches, but the American failed to complete a takedown and lost by unanimous decision.

Drake places a bet on Israel Adesanya

Meanwhile, Sports Brief earlier reported that Hip hop superstar Drake ramped up the pressure on Israel Adesanya as he prepared to defend his UFC middleweight title against challenger Jared Cannonier.

Drake shared a clip of him speaking to Adesanya in a FaceTime call, telling him that he put $1 million in a bet that he would defeat Cannonier.

According to DraftKings, Adesanya is the favourite at -450, with Cannonier the underdog on +360.