Israel Adesanya beats Anderson Silva by unanimous decision at UFC 234
- by Israel Caldwell
- in Sports
- — Feb 11, 2019
Australia's UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker withdrew from his championship defence against Kelvin Gastelum on Sunday at UFC 234 because of an abdominal injury and subsequent emergency surgery.
Israel Adesanya remains undefeated in mixed martial arts after overcoming his biggest challenge yet.
The Silva-Adesanya showdown was set to be a showcase for Adesanya, a star on the rise who has taken MMA by storm in his year in the UFC.
The second round saw the best out of Silva all fight as he started to open up with his combinations and he began finding a home for his right hand on Adesanya's jaw.
Adesanya versus Silva earned the Fight of the Night bonus and Performance of the Night bonuses went to Montana de la Rosa for her submission win over Nadia Kassem and Devonte Smith for his first round knockout of Dong Hyun Ma.
Immediately after the fight ended, Silva was overheard saying to Adesanya: "I pass the baton to you".
Taking to Twitter to express some thoughts a day after the fight, Weidman said Adesanya was a "tad bit overrated". McGregor wrote. "There are worms crawling on his skin!" "You only develop these methods through years of hard fought experience".
In the final five minutes of the fight, Adesanya surged ahead with a stronger showing on his feet while blasting Silva with several low kicks to the thigh. "I talked to Nick's manager a couple months ago, and Nick said, 'OK, let's go do it. Let's talk to Dana.' I'm just waiting for Dana". "This game is tough", Silva told the crowd after the bout. Adesanya showed great respect for Silva's counters and never fully opened up. UFC has offered full refunds due to the cancellation of the main bout. His team released a statement on how he fell ill during the pay-per-view card last night. I had to get emergency surgery on Sunday because I had a collapsed bowel and an internal hernia that was causing me all sorts of problems.
After learning that he would no longer be competing in Melbourne, Gastelum pulled an interesting move by deciding to attend UFC 234 with a UFC championship belt - believed to be Henry Cejudo's 125lbs belt - over his shoulder.
