UFC 263, an international mixed martial arts tournament developed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, concluded in Glendale, Arizona. The main event of the show was a middleweight title fight between belt holder Israel Adesanya and old acquaintance Marvin Vettori. They had previously fought in April 2018 where Adesanya won by split decision.
Despite his relatively short time with the UFC, Israel Adesanya found himself in tough fights more often than not. The New Zealander of Nigerian descent fought at middleweight for most of his career, but he recently faced defeat against new adversary Jan Blachowicz and left race to featherweight. Some people wondered if Adesanya would face the same challenges that he did before. They were worried about his mental state after his previous loss. But he showed them that he was ok and still able to fight.
One of the best parts of the show was Marvin Vettori. He’s on a five-fight win streak and nobody has been able to catch him in 26 months! He is very brave because he was very aggressive when he talked about his opponent, Israel Adesanya.
The second five minutes of the fight
The second five minutes of the fight went very badly for Vettori. Yes, he landed a few jabs. But that was nothing compared to what Adesanya was doing. Yisrael not only defended well against take-downs, but he was also a great counter puncher, turning on high kicks and generally delivering punches for all tastes. After such a bad stretch between rounds Vettori got more emotional and had more energy for the next round.
Marvin Vettori defended himself well by grabbing Adesania’s leg. However, the contender won by a split decision in April 2018 after winning in the first round that time. Israel poked his opponent in the eye during this match; Marvin paused for just a second, but didn’t take advantage of it and continued fighting as normal afterward.
After a long break for the eye injury, Israel Adesanya began to hit his opponent’s defenses harder and harder. He was relentless, attacking with low kicks followed by high kicks, straight punches and uppercuts when Vettori would go to the ground. Israel eventually had an unpleasant sequence where he accidently landed a kick below Marvin’s belt line after dangerously leaning in too close without realizing. The rest of the round was blurred as Marvin recovered from this last attack before it went back into another break for his eye injury.
The fourth round
In the fourth round, Vettori landed a lot of punches. Leveraging his knowledge in kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu, Adesanya also fought back by utilizing low attacks and strikes to the calf muscle area. However, by the middle of the fight he had already taken over 20 hard punches to that vulnerable section due to Marvin’s leg disability. Maybe this lessened his aggression as he slowed down towards the end of the fourth segment.
Marvin clamped his opponent at the net and tried to take a touchdown If his opponent were still conscious, Adesanya would get up quickly and attack them. At the end of the fourth round, the challenger again pinned his opponent at the net, in a clinch, he tried to find a moment to take a touchdown, and in the meantime, Israel did not do a very nice thing in mockery, slapping his opponent on the fifth point.
Fifth Fight
In the fifth round, Vettori finally got down. His straightforward and monotonous attempts at a takedown infuriated the audience. Adesanya, on the other hand, realizing he had the upper hand, was getting cocky. Israel openly mocked and taunted his opponent.
He first pretended that Vettori had poked him. But after a few seconds he laughed and let it be known that his eyes had been playing tricks on him. The end, when Marvin got desperate and beat his hands just above Adesanya’s knee, the latter mocked the anguish of failing in pain by simply showing how much he was suffering.
All the judges unanimously let Israel win with a huge score – 50:45, 50:45, 50:45. It should be noted that after announcing the verdict, Adesanya still gave credit to his opponent and shook his hand. However, the champion’s pride and confidence didn’t disappear. He said that he was ready to defend his title against Robert Whittaker.
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