Israel Adesanya headlined the main event at UFC 271 this weekend, but he wasn’t the only middleweight thinking about the belt. Sharing the main card was a title eliminator featuring Derek Brunson and Jared Cannonier, the latter of whom delivered a vicious TKO victory before Adesanya stepped into the Octagon.
With Israel Adesanya dispatching Robert Whittaker once more in the event’s headliner, he remains undefeated at 185 pounds, and told the post-fight press conference that he’s looking forward to “fresh meat”.
Israel Adesanya Looking Forward to “Fresh Meat” After Dominant Title Defense
“The division’s filled with killers, but I’m looking forward to fresh meat. I just saw bits and pieces. I think [Cannonier] even got rocked. I saw he got taken down and then he elbowed Brunson. I didn’t really take stock. I’ll go back and watch the fights later on and just see what it is.
But he made a statement, and I even told him after the weigh-ins. I said, ‘Look, please take this guy out so I can get some fresh meat.’ He said ‘I’m trying to work’ and I’m like, ‘Me, too.’ I’m a man of my word.”
Adesanya delivered yet another dominant title defense against Robert Whittaker, the very man he dethroned to become middleweight champ. “The Last Stylebender” has still never lost a fight at middleweight, and returned from a failed bid to capture the light heavyweight title with victories over Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori.
Both Cannonier and Adesanya survived submission attempts in their respective fights to emerge victorious. A title challenge for Jared Cannonier now feels inevitable, while Derek Brunson and Robert Whittaker will have to return to training and rebuild towards yet another title charge.
Adesanya and Whittaker proved at UFC 271 that they are head and shoulders above the rest of the division. It’s unlikely that anyone in the top ten poses a serious threat to the champ, but he was uncharacteristically generous in his praise for Robert Whittaker’s performance in their rematch. As much as Adesanya wants “fresh meat”, it seems inevitable that he’ll face “Bobby Knuckles” in the Octagon again.
“I wasn’t really looking past Robert. I took him very seriously. Right all the way to the last bell. I knew he was dangerous.
He caught me slipping one time and I was like good one cause I was really aware of it on the clinch, when we’d break away from the clinch, he was going to hit me and he caught me one on this side and I was like good one. I acknowledged it. I had fun in there.”
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