Israel Adesanya defeats Whittaker to retain UFC middleweight title
Nigerian-New Zealander mixed martial artist, Israel Adesanya retained his middleweight title after defeating Robert Whittaker via unanimous decision.
All three judges scored the rematch 49-46, 48-47, 48-47 in favour of Adesanya at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on Sunday.
The first round saw the Aussie shoot a naked takedown but the ‘Last Stylebender’ was composed and confident enough to repel it with ease. Before the round ended, Adesanya landed calf kicks and found a home for his right hooks, visibly rattling Whittaker.
Stance switching and kicks from Adesanya and Whittaker was still without answers to consistently generate offence. The Aussie overreacted to low kicks from the champion. Whittaker kept coming forward in combination but he got hit by Adesanya every time he broke it off.
The 32-year-old hurt his right hand in the third round, giving Whittaker the chance to land a left hook. Whittaker has had some success on the counter but there is just not enough of it.
Whittaker, 31, landed a strong lead hook to start the fourth round but Adesanya was back to the kicking game early in the round.
Adesanya had defeated Whittaker via second round TKO at UFC 243 on October 6, 2019.
After that, Adesanya has successfully defended his title three times and recorded the first loss of his career last year when he moved up to challenge Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title.
