Isreal Adesanya overcame American Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision to retain his UFC middlewieight title on Sunday.
Both fighters came into the bout with impressive records, but after five rounds, Isreal remained undefeated in the category and even had the time to call out a likely next opponent, Alex Pereira who shared a UFC 276 fight card.
Adesanya outstruck Cannonier by working his crisp jab, mixing in some kicks, and timing Jared with quality counters. Cannonier really just wasn’t aggressive enough and his best attacks were sporadic and immediately cut off by Adesanya before he could get any flow of power shots going. Attempts to wrestle Izzy proved unsuccessful, and fans were leaving the T-Mobile Arena before the fight was even over. It’s another Adesanya decision win but he has now firmly hit the stretch of his career that his fights feel like sparring matches.
