ISRAEL ADESANYA WAS back to his brilliant best overnight, defeating challenger Marvin Vettori with a show of superior striking and defending his middleweight title at UFC 263 in Glendale, Arizona.
It was a masterful return to form for the New Zealander on a wild night at the Gila River Arena that also saw the UFC crown its first-ever Mexican-born champion.
“I didn’t feel any threat at all,” said Adesanya, 31, after getting a comfortable unanimous decision.
Adesanya suffered the first loss of his MMA career in March after moving up a division and finding himself outmuscled. But Saturday saw him down to a weight class where he is noticeably more comfortable.
The Nigerian-born fighter’s speed around the cage and his precision striking, with low kicks and jabs, was too much for Vettori from the first bell. The Italian tried to use his bigger bulk to get Adesanya to the mat, but each time the New Zealander slipped out and got up to his feet again.
In the end, the judges’ cards read 50-45, 50-45, 50-45 –- and Adesanya was back in business, describing himself as “the king”.
There were questions before the fight about the mental toll on Adesanya of his career’s first defeat, and of the death last month of one of his close friends who was attacked on a night out in Auckland. Adesanya dedicated the fight to his friend, and laid his belt down in the middle of the cage in tribute.
Before Adesanya’s masterclass, the 18,000-odd fans in attendance raised the roof when flyweight challenger Brandon Moreno laid on a rear-naked choke in the third round that saw Brazil’s Deiveson Figueiredo first tap out and then hand over his belt to the Mexican.
Despite his nation’s storied history across all combat sports, there has never before been a Mexican UFC champion and the 27-year-old Moreno broke down in tears as he spoke in the cage afterwards.
“This moment is so amazing,” he said. “I’ve worked my whole life for this. Viva Mexico!”
The pair had thrown up one of the fights of the year when they met at UFC 256 last December, across five rounds of mayhem that was called a majority draw. This time around, Moreno left nothing to chance, moving with speed and purpose at a high tempo.
Earlier in the night, Leon Edwards survived a late surge to defeat veteran Nate Diaz – who was returning to the octagon for the first time in 18 months – in a bloody encounter.
The 29-year-old battled Conor McGregor’s old rival, looking to stay in the mix for a world title shot after his last bout in March was deemed a no-contest following an accidental eye poke on Belal Muhammad.
The English welterweight had won his previous eight fights and dominated Diaz with forward pressure. Diaz came off the worse as the fighters hit the floor in the third round, with Edwards’ punches opening up a pair of cuts on the American’s face that began gushing blood.
Edwards suffered a serious scare in the bout’s final minute as Diaz connected with a right and followed with a straight left to the jaw that knocked the Jamaican-born fighter back into the cage.
Edwards was swaying but Diaz could not get it done and the Birmingham-based fighter finished on the right side of a 49-46 decision from the judges.
Saturday night continued the UFC’s rollout of live events for American fans as the United States emerges from pandemic lockdowns that shut down most action for a year.
The UFC described the Arizona event as a sellout, much like the open-to-the-public events in Jacksonville, Florida, and Houston, Texas.
– Additional reporting from Press Association
Since they did away with the mindless violence the game has lost its appeal
It’s not really a great spectacle as a sport. Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal. Time to call a halt in my eyes especially when the Aussies could not be bothered to send over a proper team however gallant their intentions were .
“Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal.” Has anyone encouraged you to broaden your horizons?
Some (most) of us don’t speak Irish Louise. Should be commentary in English.
Have more faith in your ability to learn. It’s not all that difficult to listen to and understand the language.
Well considering you don’t have a grasp on the English language, I’m not surprised you cannot speak Gaeilge!! I can see why your glass is half empty, I think you mean “commentary should be through/ in English”… Ah the predictability of….;-)
Deborah,
1. “Well” should be followed by a comma.
2. “…grasp ‘of’ the English language”, not ‘on’.
Smarty pants
Load of crap it looked like Australia hadn’t a clue for the first quarter
Bring back the killings, that’s what made this pointless game for me!!! Zero atmosphere at the game too!!
Will ye relax. Its an opportunity our amateur players get to represent their Country. Reward for all the work and commitment they have given all year.
Well done Ireland and the 3 laois lads! Finish them off the next day.
Honestly it was a poor game. Expect a rough game next week.
Sh!te game.nothing at stake just looked like like a training match.
Pointless game
Patently false. 92 points were scored
If you don’t like this sport then don’t pay any heed to it. Simple.
There was a decent crowd there tonight and clearly sponsors and players embrace the concept so that’s why it’s still going. Nobody is being forced to watch it, if it doesn’t take your fancy that’s fine but there’s no need for everyone to bang on about how they think it’s pointless, just change the channel if it bothers you that much.
If you think the players “embrace the concept” you clearly did not watch the match. The Aussies didn’t even know the rules, and I can’t blame them. I was there and it was clear the lads were only over for a 2 week holiday and I’d do the same myself. Just glad it was only 15eur.
It’s a great game. Fast, exciting and has a well defined tackle, the bane of Football in my opinion. I think if it was marketed well, and played every year, it would be very popular.
The problem is it’s marketed badly.
Having the game on TG4 makes it difficult for non-Irish speakers to follow the rules.
You only hear about it a couple of weeks before it starts.
Having the first game in a regional venue is good in theory but seeing an empty terrance looks bad.
And the break it takes every 3 years is pointless and confusing.
The fact it’s on a Saturday night, is an international sport and is a physical game means it’s very marketable, especially to younger people. Some blood thumping adverts run during the all Ireland finals would generate huge interest and wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort.
I think with a bit more marketing and an attempt to improve the atmosphere, a la Leinster Rugby or American football, would really add to the occasion.
It’s almost as if the organisers, the GAA and AFL, aren’t sure if they want it to succeed or not.
TL;TR It’s a great game that would benefit from better marketing and showmanship.
Whatever about the merits of the game, I think it’s on its last legs, as there is literally zero interest in it in Australia. Even here in AFL-obsessed Melbourne, you wouldn’t know this game was on.
The main quality paper here – The Age – has a 20 page sport supplement every Sat and Sun. During the AFL season about 75% of that space is devoted to AFL. Yesterday (in the AFL off season), there were 2.5 pages devoted to AFL, of which about 1/8 of a page related to the international rules game. Today, there are 2 pages on AFL, with no mention of the international rules other than a single line informing readers that a match report is available online. It really says something when the international rules series is not even the main AFL-related story, at a time of year when there is no actual AFL taking place.
The writing is on the wall when you have a sport that is only relevant to two countries and one of those countries has completely lost interest.
Surely this is more to do with the timing of the game than lack of interest? It would have been impossible to get a match report onto the paper, due to the lateness of the kickoff.
It’s not that I expected a match report in the Sunday Age (obviously – the game took place on Sunday here!). But usually if an event is of interest the papers would have previews and other general coverage.
Anyway, it’s now Monday and the intl rules has been given about the same amount of space as Australian basketball and baseball (neither of which are very popular here). The game wasn’t even mentioned on any of the tv news shows I saw yesterday either.
Better than xfactor but that would not be difficult!!
That match wasn’t even mentioned in the media over here,as for cry factor its on EVERY single ad break,is every 10 minutes.
Bastardised rules. No thanks.
A mongrel game for a …
Every code of football has bastardised rules
Its a pity that genuine amatuer wholehearted GAA players were forced to pick between club and country for a series that the professional AFL pay lip service to
Rubbish sport, Mickey Harte was right
What is the point? It was on in the pub and that’s all I could think about it.
It’s an excuse to go to the pub
Well said. Any excuse is a good one.
We’ll done lad,s
Up Cavan
Welcome to World Trophy Football or wtf for short ,
Feck I missed the semi finals again…
‘Hilarious’
I’d probably watch it if they played the oval ball, atleast give the Aussies a chance since there not allowed to apply mindless thuggery anymore.
I heard there was 275,000 at the match and they were all speaking Irish, even the aboriginals, who probably discovered Australia, having set off from west cork in 6000bc with a cargo of stone hurleys and Gaelic poetry. Long before the British I might add. It’s a matter of great pride to the 42,000,000 members of the GAA. As joe brolly once said “god I’m great ammant I, hi”
Gold
It’s horrendously bad.
Why is this game always played with a round ball? Not very fair on the Aussies is it?
Worst game of football I’ve ever been too!!!
Absolutely dead match…….,
Ah shut up god we are a nation of f##king begrudgers well done lads from all of us in Oz anythime we beat the “worlds most sporting nation” is a good day for me..
Suppose this is the gaa world cup final?