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Saturday’s UFC
253 headliner was billed as a potential “Fight of the Year”
contender, a clash of undefeated titans in the middleweight
division.
In the end, it was little more than a showcase for reigning
185-pound champion Israel
Adesanya. “The Last Stylebender” was never threatened by
Paulo
Costa on Saturday night in Abu Dhabi, and he ultimately cruised
to a technical knockout victory 3:59 into the second round. The
City Kickboxing representative saw the writing on the wall
early.
“After the first round,” Adesanya said at the UFC 253 post-fight
press conference. “I was so fresh. I looked over and I could see he
was sitting down. In the second round, his antics, what they want —
they want me to stand there. ‘Come, come, why you running, come
here.’ They just want me to stand there so you can punch me.
“I’m not stupid, dummy. I told you he’s dumb. I’m smart. I
understand his f—-ing game.”
Adesanya chopped away at Costa’s legs for much of Round 1 while
frustrating his brawling-minded opponent with clever movement. He
ignored the Brazilian’s taunts and really got rolling in the second
stanza, when he tagged “Borrachinha” with a multi-punch
combination, floored him with a left hook and ended the fight with
a barrage of vicious ground-and-pound.
Adesanya’s superior fight IQ was evident throughout the lopsided
affair.
“I’m 10 steps ahead,” Adesanya said. “I told you guys I’m 10 steps
ahead. You think these are just words, but I’m 10 steps ahead. … I
told you guys in the pre-fight I’m not a human punching bag. He’s
only fought human punching bags, guys who will just stand there and
cover up. They just let him tee off on them.”
The 31-year-old Nigerian-born Kiwi is 20-0 in mixed martial arts
but pointed out that he has a wealth of combat sports experience
that extends beyond the cage.
“This is my 100th win in combat sports all around. One fight, two
fights, three fights, four fights, five fights, six fights – all
the way to a f—-ing hundred. I’m not a f—-ing baby for this game.
I’ve been in this s—t for a long time and I’m still fresh.”
After a somewhat lackluster showing against Yoel Romero
at UFC 248 earlier this year, Adesanya still appears to be
head-and-shoulders above the rest of the middleweight division. He
has already targeted Jared
Cannonier as his next potential challenger, but Cannonier must
first get past Robert
Whittaker at UFC 254 on Oct. 24 to be officially annointed as
the No. 1 contender.
“I think Jared’s going to dust Robert
Whittaker and I look forward to fighting him,” Adesanya said.
“I think he’s going to get it done. I’m rooting for him. But if
Robert
Whittaker wins and he wants to get knocked out a third time, I
can make that happen, too.”
