Israel Adesanya Has One Challenge Left at Middleweight After UFC 271 Win
Jan Blachowicz wrote the playbook.
Last year about this time, when Israel Adesanya paused his dismantling of the UFC middleweight division to try his luck at light heavyweight, Blachowicz was there to welcome him. Then the champ at 205 pounds, Blachowicz used well-timed takedowns, sheer bulk and the threat of his curtain-closing power to keep Adesanya under control long enough to hand the middleweight champ his first loss in pro MMA.
The playbook was there for all to see, but Robert Whittaker reminded us all Saturday night that drawing it up is only step one. Challenging Adesanya for the middleweight strap in the main event of UFC 271, Whittaker was routinely turned away on takedown attempts and hammered with leg kicks as he attempted to close distance. Although Whittaker fared better than he did in their original bout in 2019, which ended in a second-round knockout, Whittaker still came up short with a unanimous decision defeat, 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.
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"I knew he was going to bring everything, because last time I took everything away from him," Adesanya told broadcaster Daniel Cormier in the cage after the fight. "So he had nothing to lose. … I hurt his leg. And once he realized it was hurt, he was really tentative and defensive with it. I knew he was going to copy Jan’s homework, but I'm the big dog in this yard, so he couldn't take me down at all."
It's the fourth straight title defense for Adesanya, now 32 years old and 22-1 in pro MMA. This rematch was considered the last best chance for the middleweight division to dethrone him.
Even so, one final challenge awaits Adesanya in the middleweight division. But we'll get back to that.
As for Saturday, call it a close but clear victory for Adesanya, one that didn't contain a lot of pyrotechnics but was did serve as a strategic necessity given the approach many suspected the challenger would take. Whittaker does, after all, possess high-level MMA wrestling, the kind that could allow him to mimic Blachowicz's winning formula.
The biggest offensive moment of the entire fight came in the first round, a straight right hand from Adesanya that landed flush on Whittaker's mug and sent him right to the canvas. But one thing you have to understand about Bobby Knuckles: he's a tough customer. He sprang back to his feet and skated away before Adesanya could do any more damage.
Still, the first was probably the clearest win for the champ, as he outlanded Whittaker 34-21 in significant strikes, 11 of which were leg kicks, per UFC stats.
The second was closer, and contained lots of action-packed sequences including a razor-sharp Adesanya punch combination in the opening moments. Whittaker threw with significantly more volume and landed his only takedown attempt of the round, even if Adesanya got right back to his feet. In the striking phase, the champ continued to pound the leg kicks, while Whittaker used the clinch to rack up about a minute of control time as a result.
Knuckles got another takedown in the third, but with the same result. Blachowicz weighs at least 20 pounds more than Whittaker and has a lot of that old Polish man strength, and that sheer size and strength gave Blachowicz advantages that simply weren’t available to Whittaker.
It’s not that he couldn’t take Adesanya down at all—he ultimately converted 4-of-10—but when he did, Adesanya bounced back up like he was spring-loaded. Whittaker was sometimes able to cling on with a body lock for a while, but nothing much more consequential than that.
Many of the exchanges ended up being trading kicks, with Adesanya going inside and out on the knee and calf and Whittaker preferring oblique kicks. Punching exchanges would showed power and precision from both men, but nothing that created fight-altering damage.
The final round saw Whittaker sell out on the takedowns, attempting four of them, the most of any round. Sadly for him, only one connected. A decent chunk of the round was spent in the clinch as a few boo birds began to serenade the competitors from the Toyota Center rafters.
This less-than-scintillating victory combined with the previous knockout probably spells an end to the Izzy-Knuckles saga. So who's next for the champ?
Adesanya's coach, Eugene Bareman, said this week that a return to 205 is inevitable. Now look at the middleweight rankings, where you'll basically see a list of guys Adesanya has already beaten, and none with a great deal of difficulty: Marvin Vettori (twice), Derek Brunson, Paulo Costa and so on. This is not a deep division.
With just one exception: a thunder-fisted converted heavyweight named Jared Cannonier. And hey, what's this? As fate would have it, Cannonier also fought on Saturday's card, forcing a rare corner stoppage with brutal elbow strikes on a game Brunson. It was enough to earn Cannonier a post-fight bonus.
If Cannonier hadn't made such a violent statement, there might not have been as much energy around a date with the champ, but Cannonier did what top fighters do: he rose to the occasion.
"I want the title shot next," Cannonier told Cormier in the cage after his win. "I get it next. Nobody else. Me next."
After his win, Adesanya was quick to return the call-out, all but cementing the deal.
"I know the dog Jared Cannonier did some work tonight, so I'll be ready in June," Adesanya said.
In the post-fight presser, UFC prez Dana White also said he'd like to make the match, though he wasn't sure if June was possible.
So there we have it. Adesanya would likely be a substantial favorite in that matchup, but it's still interesting enough, especially with Cannonier's power, to move it out of the foregone-conclusion level.
This isn't quite Anderson Silva-Thales Leites territory, but if Adesanya wins this, a long gray line of mismatches isn't far away. As a result, we could see him back at light heavyweight sooner rather than later. Until then, bask in the greatness of the best non-Silva middleweight in history, and look forward to what could be his last great barnburner in the division he owns.
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