Sodiq Oyeleke and Kelvin Ekerete
Jan Blachowicz has defeated Israel Adesanya to retain his light heavyweight title by unanimous decision at UFC 259 in Las Vegas on Sunday .
Jan Blachowicz ( 28 -8 ) was awarded an upset unanimous decision victory over Israel Adesanya ( 20 -1 ) after judges handed scores of 49 -46 , 49 – 45 , and 49 -45 in favor of the Polish champion.
In the first three rounds , both men minimised mistakes and scrambled to find their stance but Blachowicz bulldozes his way into a dominant mounting position in the fourth and fifth rounds .
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Israel Adesanya had intended to burnish the legend as he aimed to become the fifth fighter in UFC history to become a two- weight champion simultaneously .
The Nigerian had stepped into the octagon against Jan Blachowicz , the light -heavyweight title -holder , in a bid to add to his middleweight championship honours .
The Pole is bigger , more experienced , and older , but Adesanya had said none of these qualities troubled him .
With his defeat, the “ Stylebender ” has failed in his recent bid to join Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier , Amanda Nunes , and Henry Cejudo as one of the five fighters in UFC history to hold titles in two divisions simultaneously.
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The loss is Adesanya ’ s first in the UFC but the Nigerian-born New Zealander says the fight did not go according to plan .
“ I thought I was going to win . The fight didn’ t go exactly the way it wanted to go ,” Adesanya said.
“ The size did play a factor but I could have done better . This is not a one -off . I’ m definitely going to come back .
“ I dared to be great and now I go back to the middleweight and rule it with an iron fist . ”
An excited Blachowicz hailed Adesanya ’ s technique but said he would have loved to knock out the middleweight champion .
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“ If I had knocked him out it would have been better but he is a great fighter. I am very happy I handed him his first defeat, ” Blachowicz said.
“ He hit harder than I thought. He was a bit slower than I expected. He thought I was going to take him down earlier but I had to wait till he was tired .“
