One of the last style bender's top moments
came from his UFC debut at UFC 221, it was here
in Israel Adesanya would take on Rob Wilkinson.
It was the most anticipated UFC debut of
2018 .
Adesanya established himself as a great
striker with an impressive kickboxing
record, and Wilkinson had only lost one of the
12 fights he had thus far.
At the beginning of the first round, Wilkinson
did his best to keep it a grappling up against
the cage kind of fight, knowing how good
Adesanya was at striking.
But the last style Bender had a great
defense, and Wilkinson struggled to keep
Adesanya off his feet. By the second round
Adesnaya clearly found his rhythm and started
landing huge blows on Wilkinson.
Before the round was over, Adesanya released
a barrage of punches and knees that put Wilkinson
out for good.
At sixteen takedowns.
And the end here might be a formality. Big
right hand.
This looks like physical surrender to me.
He's not answering back, just has his hands up.
It's not going to take much for the referee to
stop this one.
This is a punching bag right now.
Huge right hand from Adesanya after Wilkinson
had landed a knee.
Not sure how much more Steve Percival needs to
see.
There's a knee and this guy is done.
Israel Adesanya!
Despite this impressive debut Adesanya only felt
he did so-so. I guess that's what makes him so
good.
This next fight was built up with a lot of
trash talk and mutual disrespect, which made
it that much more exciting. At UFC 230
Adesanya would take on Derek Brunson, who
previously called Adesanya out on being
too skinny.
The last style bender rolled with the verbal
punches and gave some trash talk right back to
Brunson.
After a while of intense weigh ins and aggressive
social media postings, these two would finally
hash it out in the octagon. Right away
It was clear Brunson was desperate for a
takedown, but once again, Adesanya's
defense held up. Before the end of round one,
Brunson came in and Adesanya stunned him
with a knee to the face.
From there was a series of strikes, kicks and
knees.
And Brunson was done for.
Twenty seconds to go in the round.
I don't know, Joe.
Elbow.
Knocks Derek Brunson out in round one! That's
we're talking about ladies and gentlemen.
That's technique.
Strangely enough, we haven't heard trash talk
from Brunson since.
At this point, Izzy's dominance in the octagon
was well established, but Kelvin Gastelum was
known for scoring wins through sheer force of
will.
In the first round, Gastelum made it pretty
clear that he had knock out power.
A couple of strikes on Adesanya left the last
style bender stunned.
But in the second round, Adesanya came back with
some great kicks and a punch that had Gastelum
falling to the ground.
Oh.
Some adversity now for Kelvin Gastelum.
Two minutes to go round two.
Big right hand by Adesanya. Perfectly
placed.
Adesanya came close to scoring a submission
both by standing guillotine and triangle,
but Gastelum managed to slip out.
This fight kept up the pace and intensity, and
by the end of it all Izzy's lip was about the
same size as his face.
By the last 10 seconds of the final round
Adesanya just missed getting the finish, but
won by unanimous decision, this made Izzy
the interim middleweight champion.
It seems like this fight is often overlooked, but
we think it will be look back on is one of the
greatest fights of all time.
After handling Gastelum, Adesnaya was all set up
to take on Robert Whitaker at UFC 243 for
the middleweight championship belt. Now
that Whitaker wants a rematch
he's claiming that Adesanya wasn't actually
all that good.
We saw a different story.
Many fighters have tried to use their superior
size, weight and wrestling skills to take
down Adesanya, and most have failed.
Whitaker was one of those fighters. At the
time
many fighters thought Whitaker had it in the
bag.
But if there's anything we've learned, it's that
you don't underestimate the last stylebender.
Adesanya's dance moves speak for themselves.
Whitaker tried right away to get in some huge
left hooks, but Adesanya proved to be a bit too
slippery for the Australian.
Izzy responded with a huge right hook that put
Whitaker on the ground and rocked him
the rest of the fight. In round two Adesanya
landed another hook and this time took Whitaker
down for good.
Hands down, just leaning back out of the range of
those kicks.
He's got to be very careful.
This secured Adesanya the championship belt
and a place in UFC history.
Time and time again, huge athletes with
aggressive fighting styles come after
Adesanya and time and time again Adesanya
destroys them. Paulo Costa and Israel
Adesanya had some beef with each other for a
while.
Both fighters were undefeated and Costa was
hungry for the belt.
This led to a bitter rivalry and some of the
most colorful trash talk from both parties.
You know who's next.
I got this overly inflated balloon animal,
this heavy a-- Ricky Martin wannabe.
Trust me, when I'm done with him, he'll really
little Ricky Martin: botched.
After some aggressive interviews and weigh
ins.
These two middleweights would finally face each
other at UFC 253. Right Adesanya started
chopping at Costa's lead leg and Costa responded
with a lot of showboating.
But by the second round, Izzy landed a huge hook
that took down Costa and went for the ground and
pound.
Now he's got Costa's attention so much - oh -
and then he's out.
And then he's going to go to the leg again. OH!
That is it! Still undisputed!
Quick night at the office for the champion
Israel Adesanya.
Izzy even finished it off with a little
disrespectful moment.
It was an embarrassing loss for Costa, but
we're sure next time he won't drink wine before
his fight.