IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Nigeria-born UFC fighter, Israel Adesanya aka The Last Stylebender, has lost his UFC middleweight belt to Brazil’s Alex Pereira following a knockout defeat in the UFC281 main event at the Madison Square Garden, United States, in the earlier hours of Sunday.
Pereira, a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and former kickboxer, is the new UFC middleweight champion after knocking out longtime opponent Israel Adesanya in the fifth round in only his fourth bout.
Adesanya’s kickboxing career involved a few losses, with Pereira having outpointed Adesanya in 2016 and knocked out the “Last Stylebender ” in 2017.
The Brazilian was behind going into the fifth session, but managed to drop Adesanya and impose his fearsome striking power to stop his old kickboxing rival.
Adesanya was unbeaten at middleweight in mixed martial arts, but Pereira was able to re-live their second kickboxing bout with a come-from-behind win.
The likes of Mike Tyson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Sylvester Stallone were in attendance for Adesanya’s sixth world title defense since dethroning Robert Whittaker in October 2019 and unifying the division.
Nigeria has now lost all her title holders in the UFC after same fate befell Kamaru Usman in August, who lost his UFC Welterweight belt to Leon Edwards at UFC 278 in the same manner as that of Adesanya.
Usman was among those at Madison Square to cheer up Adesanya.
Below are some clips from the fight on Sunday morning: