JUST-IN: Israel Adesanya subdues Cannonier to retain UFC middleweight belt

Nigeria’s Israel Adesanya defeated Jarred Cannonier by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) to retain the UFC middleweight championship.

Adesanya fought against middleweight contender Jared Cannonier at UFC 276 at the T-mobile Arena, Las Vegas Sunday morning.

Since making his debut in 2018, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has looked better each time he’s stepped into the Octagon and is still undefeated in the middleweight. He first captured the interim title in the Fight of The Year winner against Kelvin Gastelum in 2019.

‘Izzy’ then defeated Robert Whittaker and unified the titles that same year.

He has successfully defended his title four times since then. On an otherwise perfect record for Adesanya (22-1), his only loss was during his unsuccessful step up to light heavyweight, losing to then-champion Jan Blachowicz.

On Sunday, the Nigerian-born New Zealander successfully defended his middleweight title for the fifth time.

While Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker in February for the second time to retain his middleweight strap, Cannonier knocked out Derek Brunson in the second round in February to become the weight’s No.1contender.

In the last round on Sunday, Cannonier struggled to get a takedown while Adesanya was cautious as the crowd got restless.

Though Adesanya landed clean jabs, Cannonier fired back with a flurry of punches.

However, Cannonier failed to complete a takedown and lost by unanimous decision.

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Cannonier landed a little right hand early in the round but Adesanya tagged him with a hard jab in round four.

Adesanya landed a heavy body kick and a two-punch combo behind it. Another right hand landed for Adesanya.

He then landed a left and ducked and spun under a wild shot from Cannonier. Cannonier grabbed another clinch along the cage but did nothing with it before Adesanya broke away and landed a leg kick.

Again, Cannonier clinched up along the cage while Adesanya landed a few inside punches.