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Israel Adesanya was one of the most anticipated prospects to ever step into the Octagon, and with good reason. Prior to his UFC debut, he had won 11 bouts, all by way of knockout. He didn’t slow down once he emerged under the UFC banner, taking out Rob Wilkinson in his promotional debut, upping the ante to 12 wins all by way of knockout.
Many were anticipating the same outcome at UFC on FOX 29 on Saturday night, but Marvin Vettori had something to say about it, taking Adesanya the distance in their three-round main card bout. Adesanya ended up winning the fight via a split decision. It didn’t sit well with Adesanya, who expects as much out of himself in the cage as does everyone else.
“Looking ahead, this is gonna be good for me, getting that distance in the UFC, going all the way. At the moment, right now, I just want to sulk for like another three hours. It sucks, but it’s gonna be okay,” Adesanya admitted.
While he can see the light at the end of the tunnel in seeing his knockout streak come to an end, there is a more troubling issue that struck him after the fight: the idea that one of the judges saw the fight in Vettori’s favor.
“One thing that pisses me off, what kind of judge gave that fight to him? What?! If there was one other judge that was crazy or drunk or whatever on the side of the cage, that would have been me with my win bonus gone.”
Regardless of the controversies, Adesanya improved to 13-0 and continues to ascend the UFC middleweight ranks, exuding the promise of one day becoming a threat to the middleweight title.
