Israel Adesanya on Sunday morning, at the T-mobile Arena, Las Vegas, defeated Jarred Cannonier via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) to retain the UFC middleweight championship.
Adesanya first captured the interim title in the Fight of The Year winner against Kelvin Gastelum in 2019. He then defeated Robert Whittaker and unified the titles that same year.
He has successfully defended his title four times since then. On an otherwise perfect record for Adesanya (22-1), his only loss was during his unsuccessful step up to light heavyweight, losing to then-champion Jan Blachowicz.
With his win on Sunday, the Nigerian-born New Zealander, hassuccessfully defended his middleweight title for the fifth time.
While Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker in February for the second time to retain his middleweight strap, Cannonier knocked out Derek Brunson in the second round in February to become the weight’s No.1 contender.
