Israel Adesanya And the Real Winners and Losers from UFC 293
Into every significant sports weekend, a little Dana White must fall.
The bare-skulled boss is on the road with his combat behemoth this weekend in Australia, staging a pay-per-view show that went head to head with college football, playoff-relevant baseball and endless pontificating about the opening Sunday of the NFL.
UFC 293 was the Octagonal event set for Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, and it was topped by a five-bout portion featuring locally based hero Israel Adesanya, who made the first defense of his second middleweight title reign against fifth-ranked contender Sean Strickland.
Adesanya held all the cards at 185 pounds for 37 months before he was knocked out by Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in New York City last November. He regained the strap against Pereira when he laid the Brazilian out in the main event at UFC 287 in Miami in April.
Strickland had been headed toward a title fight before he was leveled by Pereira at UFC 276 in July 2022 and he lost a subsequent fight to Jared Cannonier—who was coming off his own loss to Adesanya—but righted the ship with two straight wins.
Having Adesanya on the marquee was all that was needed to get the attention of the B/R combat team, which was in place to deliver a definitive real-time list of winners and losers at the show, which began at 6:30 p.m. (ET) for early prelims and started at 10 p.m. for the main card.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
Winner: Expecting the Unexpected
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It's one of the best things about MMA.
The greatest fighters, much more often than in boxing, lose.
Conor McGregor lost. Amanda Nunes lost. Kamaru Usman lost. Valentina Shevchenko lost.
And exactly 100 pay-per-view shows ago, about 450 miles away, Ronda Rousey lost.
So it shouldn't be such an enormous surprise that in Saturday night's main event, Israel Adesanya lost his middleweight title to Sean Strickland, who went off as nearly a 7-to-1 underdog.
But it was.
"I love to talk," Daniel Cormier said. "And I have no words."
It wasn't a bloodbath. It wasn't a war. In fact, it might seem so surprising because of how easy Strickland, who took the fight as the No. 5 contender when No. 1 Dricus Du Plessis deferred, made it look.
He stalked Adesanya for every moment of a 25-minute fight. He consistently landed the most powerful punches, including a right hand that dropped Adesanya and nearly stopped him in the first round. And he won four of five rounds on each of the three official scorecards, in Adesanya's home region.
Still, shocking doesn't quite do it justice.
"Am I f--king dreaming? Am I gonna wake up? Somebody hit me," Strickland said. "I don't f--king cry much but I'm trying to keep my sh-t together. Izzy's a bad mother f--ker, man. The majority of my friends, he's beaten pretty easily. And there were times I was doubting myself. But I want to thank you guys for this win because you f--king motivated me. Thank you, Australia."
It was Adesanya's third loss in 16 UFC fights and second in his last three championship appearances. Meanwhile, for Strickland, it was his 15th victory in 20 UFC fights and his third win in a row since a two-fight losing streak.
"It's crazy man," Cormier said. "That's why this sport is unlike any other."
Winner: Methodical Excellence
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Alexander Volkov reminds no one of a ballerina or a breakdancer.
Instead, the 6'7" Russian heavyweight is fundamentally sound and persistently methodical while finding a way to exploit an opponent's weakness.
Matched with Aussie favorite Tai Tuivasa in a battle of ranked contenders, Volkov waded through the fan favorite's powerful strikes and dealt with his leg kicks by getting the fight to the floor and ultimately securing the third submission of his career via a rarely used Ezekiel choke.
The final sequence came when Volkov caught a right kick from Tuivasa while simultaneously landing a right-hand punch that dropped his opponent to the floor.
He strafed Tuivasa with ground strikes and left him squirming on the mat before wrapping his right arm behind Tuivasa's neck and driving his left arm into "Bam Bam's" carotid artery, prompting a tap-out surrender.
The official time was 4:37 of Round 2 and the Ezekiel choke finish was just the third in UFC heavyweight history.
It was the 11th win in 15 UFC fights for Volkov, who arrived ranked seventh in the heavyweight division, one place behind Tuivasa, who lost for the third straight time to fall to 8-6 in the Octagon.
Winner: Earning Respect
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Both men climbed the fence just after the final horn.
And though it was apparent to most in the building that 10th-ranked flyweight Manel Kape had indeed done enough to win his three-rounder with short-notice UFC newcomer Felipe dos Santos, there was little doubt that it was the soon-to-be 23-year-old (his birthday is Monday) had won the night.
Kape did earn a narrow but deserved unanimous decision by scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, but the previously unbeaten veteran of just seven pro fights had earned his foe's respect by the end.
"I have all the respect for this kid," Kape said. "He's a tough kid. But he's not a kid, he's a man. Long range, he'll do very well."
The winner's sentiment was echoed by the announce team, which gushed about dos Santos through a late first round in which he boosted his volume and the final two rounds in which he landed as many hard shots as he sustained, though he was clearly at a disadvantage when it came to power.
"The striking of Manel Kape is landing but I can't help but admire the way Felipe dos Santos is right in his face," Laura Sanko said. "The way that he's eating these punches is just nuts."
Anik upped his colleague's ante, suggesting that the gutty debut indicates dos Santos, who's a protégé of Brazilian lightweight great Charles Oliveira, is ready for world-class opposition as a norm.
"Instead of fighting on Dana White's Contender Series," Jon Anik said, "he's proving he's ready for the top 15."
Meanwhile, Kape followed his respect for dos Santos with an expletive-filled callout of fifth-ranked Kai Kara-France, who was seated cage-side and had pulled out of the fight due to injury.
"These guys are f—king scared," Kape said, before suggesting that if Kara-France pulled out again he'd got to his gym and spar him there.
Winner: Winning Encores
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Last time around, it was over in less than half a minute.
And when Justin Tafa was hit with another inadvertent eye poke in the opening seconds of a rematch against former NFL player Austen Lane, it seemed an all-too-familiar ending was near.
But this time, Tafa got the quick conclusion he was looking for.
The mammoth Australian heavyweight shook off the early damage and got back to his striking business, ultimately clipping Lane with a lunging left hook that dumped him to the floor and prompted a series of ground shots that forced the hand of referee Jim Perdios after 82 seconds.
Tafa was 3-3 with a no contest in the UFC after the aborted match with Lane three months ago, but he said afterward that the wait was worth it.
He looked ready to simply walk away after landing the left hand, but when Perdios didn't intervene immediately he dropped to the mat and delivered six more heavy shots—all of which landed.
It ended at 1:12 of the first and was Lane's first official UFC result after the no-contest in Jacksonville, Florida.
"I showed you," Tafa said. "That's why I needed this rematch."
Winner: Hating Your Work
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Tyson Pedro said it was the first time he disliked an opponent.
Given Saturday's result, he might want to generate enmity more often.
The Australia-based light heavyweight was patient while waiting for chatty Swedish foe Anton Turkalj to get himself into range, then delivered in punishing style with a series of shots that led to a KO finish barely more than two minutes into the first round of the main-card opener.
Pedro began the ending sequence with a left-right-left combination that sent Turkalj stumbling as if he had Slinkys for legs. The Aussie pursued his stricken quarry with more hard shots from both sides and ultimately dropped him with another right hand and followed with another ground strike.
Referee Marc Goddard leaped in to stop things at 2:12 of the first.
"I've been f--king imagining this every night," Pedro said. "I knew I was gonna bring it home for Sydney."
It was his sixth win in 10 UFC fights while Trukalj fell to 0-3 since a win on Dana White's Contender Series.
"I'm still a beginner at City Kickboxing," Pedro said. "To those who support me, thank you, and to those who don't, thank you as well. You put a chip on my shoulder."
Loser: Breaking Down
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There are emotionally painful losses. And there are physically painful losses.
Saturday's loss for Australian local Jack Jenkins was surely both.
The popular featherweight was riding a two-fight win streak (plus a win on Dana White's Contender Series) into his prelim with Chepe Mariscal, but to say it didn't end as he intended is an understatement.
The 29-year-old not only gets an L on the record but probably an extended time on the shelf as well after suffering what appeared to be a dislocated right elbow—or a broken right arm—that necessitated a verbal submission in the second round of their scheduled three-rounder.
Jenkins had controlled the first round with effective punches and kicks to Mariscal's legs, but his Denver-based opponent made things ugly in the second with successful in-close work along the fence. He used his right leg to trip Jenkins as he threw him toward the canvas, forcing Jenkins to use his own right arm to break the fall and causing the gruesome injury.
Jenkins laid motionless for a few moments in obvious pain and referee Greg Kleynjans immediately waved things off at 3:19 of the second.
"I actually heard like a pop, like something broke," Mariscal said. "I haven't heard that since I was a kid."
The loss created a split for the two Aussie fights on the show's prelim portion following Jamie Mullarkey's narrow unanimous decision over UFC veteran John Makdessi.
It was Mullarkey's fifth win in nine Octagonal appearances while Makdessi dropped to 11-9 in a run that stretches back to UFC 124 in 2010.
"He's a tough son of a gun. He's an absolute veteran," Mullarkey said. "We worked diligently in this camp on our outside game more than anything. Staying patient and picking shots."
Winner: Stellar Statement
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Gabriel Miranda seems to have some legit superstar chops.
The 33-year-old Brazilian is comfortable in front of a microphone, confidently twirls his handlebar mustache when cameras approach, and has obvious jiu-jitsu skills—as evidenced by his arrival to Saturday's show with 15 submissions in 16 career victories.
And though his victory in Sydney was against an opponent who'd lost three straight fights and four of six overall in the Octagon, it was no less indicative of a stellar Miranda performance.
"The featherweight division has a big problem right now," he said. "Because I am here right now."
Indeed, though he was finished in barely more than five minutes in his UFC debut at lightweight, Miranda was much more comfortable a division down at featherweight, quickly working Shane Young into position for the neck crank finish that came after just 59 seconds.
Young had actually weighed in several pounds beyond the contracted limit, but Miranda agreed to go through with the fight in spite of the disadvantage, insisting he never hesitated.
"I came from Brazil 28 hours on a plane," he said. "I'm fighting, no matter what. I'll fight anyone at any time, and I came to beat this guy."
Loser: Notorious Proxy
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Israel Adesanya will probably never fight Conor McGregor.
But their training partners had an Octagonal proxy war in Saturday's curtain-raiser, and it was all good for the supporters of the New Zealand-based City Kickboxing gym.
Welterweight Kevin Jousset controlled early distance with a stiff, accurate jab and the jiu-jitsu ace went to his combat wheelhouse for the finish, taking advantage of a tactical error by McGregor teammate Kiefer Crosbie to secure a rear-naked choke surrender at 4:49 of the opening round.
"That's as good a UFC debut as he could ever imagine," Daniel Cormier said of Jousset, a Frenchman who'd gone 8-2 with five KOs, but no submissions, across three promotions.
It was also the first UFC appearance for Crosbie, who began fighting as an amateur in 2013 and turned pro three years later. He'd been 10-3 in multiple promotions and was competitive against Jousset but went for a stepover takedown and quickly found himself on the canvas with his foe on his back.
Jousset's right arm was under his chin soon after, prompting the quick tap for referee Jim Perdios.
"I just wanted to be smart," Jousset told Cormier. "Nobody takes me down, you know that."
Winner: Breaking Barriers
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The UFC has been a good place for women.
Champions Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes became crossover superstars during their title reigns and Megan Olivi is a frequent staple of the company's broadcasts as a popular and effective in-house reporter.
But until Saturday night in Sydney, no woman in the promotion's modern era had shared the announce table on a pay-per-view show.
Laura Sanko, who had a brief run as an MMA pro a decade ago, made her PPV debut alongside Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier when the early prelims went live at 6:30.
She's the first woman to appear at the table for a high-profile event since Kathy Long was part of the team at UFC 1, 30 years ago when the promotion was under different ownership.
Sanko had already become the first woman to work a broadcast role with the current ownership when she was part of the team for Dana White's Contender Series in 2021.
Cormier welcomed Sanko to the table Saturday night and referred to her as a "little sister" while asking if she was ready "to eat."
"I am honored. I am excited to be here," Sanko said. "I'm going to do my best to act like I've been here, but I haven't been here before."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Sean Strickland def. Israel Adesanya by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)
Alexander Volkov def. Tai Tuivasa by submission (Ezekiel choke), 4:37, Round 2
Manel Kape def. Felipe dos Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Justin Tafa def. Austen Lane by TKO (punches), 1:12, Round 1
Tyson Pedro def. Anton Turkalj by KO (punches), 2:12, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Carlos Ulberg def. Da Woon Jung by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:49, Round 3
Chepe Mariscal def. Jack Jenkins by TKO (arm injury), 3:19, Round 2
Jamie Mullarkey def. John Makdessi by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Nasrat Haqparast def. Landon Quiñones by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Early Preliminary Card
Charles Radtke def. Blood Diamond by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Gabriel Miranda def. Shane Young by submission (neck crank), 0:59, Round 1
Kevin Jousset def. Kiefer Crosbie by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:49, Round 1
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