Adesanya wins N18m after first-round knock-out 

Nigerian-born United Fight Club (UFC) middleweight fighter, Israel Adesanya recorded an impressive first round knock out victory over Derek Brunson at the Madison Square Gardens in New York on Saturday.

Adesanya avoided American Brunson’s early attempts to get him to the floor before landing a hard knee to the chin in a scramble. Brunson backed off and tried to regain his wits, but Adesanya smelled blood. He followed up with more knees, dropped him with a right hand and eventually finished him with punches against the fence.

Adesanya, who is based in New Zealand, in his post fight interview said the fight was a ‘walk in the park’ for him
Adesanya said. “They say I ain’t got no wrestling. This was like a walk in the park.
“No, this was like a walk in the garden. Madison, baby.”

He also admitted that he was close to pulling out of the fight due to a lingering knee injury.
“I was limping,” Adesanya said. “My knee was so inflamed.”

“Within three days my knee was getting better, then I had a cortisone shot a few days later – I checked with USADA, the golden snitch and they said ‘yeah, it’s cool’.

“It was feeling so much better then I got back to the gym and started killing it, but I’m going to have to have surgery just to take away whatever niggly injury it was.”
Adesanya has won all his UFC fights this year and is now undefeated in 15 fights.
The 28 year old posted on his twitter page a picture of his dancing ‘Shakushaku’,  tagging it ‘#shukaku for my pipu 🇳🇬.’
He also won the Performance of the Night prize, winning a 18 million Naira bonus.