Jan Blachowicz stopped Israel Adesanya‘s quest for greatness and retained the UFC light heavyweight champion. The main event of the UFC 259 saw the 38-year old winning via unanimous decision.
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The judges scored 49-46, 49-45, 49-45 in Blachowicz’s favor. The Pole now moves to 28-8, successfully defending the light heavyweight title for the first time. Those who watched the matched cold see Blachowicz’s excellent tactic, which pretty much neutralized all Adesanya’s attacks and attempts to make a difference in the ring.
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The Pole’s size also played a big role, especially in the final two rounds, once he started breathing a bit heavier. Two takedown attempts, one in each round, gave results because Blachowicz controlled the situation on the ground without any problems. Those two situations sealed his win over the undefeated (up to this match) Adesanya, who is 20-1 now.
Blachowicz’s jab was doing great work rebuffing the attacks from the other side, but it needs to be said that Izzy had moments of his own when he combined a few leg kicks and right hands. During the third round, he intensively started chopping Blachowicz’s leading leg, and that gave results. However, he was unprepared for the takedowns that followed his attacks.
Petr Yan (15-2) lost the title belt after a disqualification against Aljamain Sterling (20-3). In the fight for the bantamweight title, that preceded the main event, the Russian hit Sterling with an illegal knee to the head.
What is even more tragic for Yan was that he started cracking Sterling, who was not looking good at all. According to the scorecards, the Russian was winning at the moment of disqualification, but unfortunately, one reckless move was enough for him to ruin that all.
Amanda Nunes (21-4) didn’t have any trouble against Megan Anderson (10-5), trouncing the featherweight challenger in just two minutes and once again displaying her brutal domination in the ladies part of the organization. The Lioness is the only active multi-division champion, and it seems that such a situation will stay for a long time.
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-->In other fights, Aleksandar Rakic defeated the former light heavyweight challenger, Thiago Santos, via a unanimous decision. Just to remind, Santos happened the be the last guy who beat Blachowicz. Islam Makhachev submitted Drew Dober in the third round via arm-triangle choke, while Dominick Cruz defeated Casey Kenney after a split decision 28-29, 29-28, 30-27.
