Nigeria’s UFC Mega star, Israel Adesanya on Saturday night at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia got the greatest stunner of his life as his opponent in the Middle Weight Main Card, French boy, Nassourdine Imamov gave him a knockout in 30 seconds of the second round.
Israel known as the Style bender was so stunned that he punched the canvas severally after the Ref called off the fight. It is the third straight defeat for the 35 year old New Zealand based fighter which now puts a question mark on his career.
Israel had employed his trademark jabs and hard kicks which Imamov absorbed before a straight strong jab into Adesanya’s eyes, mashed him and dropped the Nigerian to the canvass and then rained blows on him before the Ref declared it is over for the Nigerian.
Adesanya who on Saturday morning said he saw blood on the sand came into the fight with a record 24-4-0 while Imamov had a 15-4-0 record.
Israel Adesanya was having his first non-title fight since 2019 and this was to be a build up to reclaim his elite position in the Middleweight class after suffering two consecutive defeats. He has not had any victory since April 2023 when he lost to Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plesis.
Imavov was the 5th ranked in the class as he had three straight victories over Jared Cannoniez; Roman Dolidze and Brendan Allen.
This happens to be the 116 professional bout of the “StyleBender” who had 105-10 records in MMA kick boxing with six consecutive Middleweight title defenses.
He won the King of the Ring tournament championship three times in two weight categories namely Cruiser weight and Heavy weight.
From 30th August 2014 to 31st October 2015 Adesanya defeated 13 fighters; 9 in three nights which was a great achievement.
In the main undercard which was also a Middle Weight bout, British’s Michael ‘Venom’ Page ended Russia’s Sharabutdin Magomedov undefeated reign with a unanimous decision of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Page who fought mostly at the Welterweight Class had his first Middleweight bout in 2012. He has had one win and one defeat before the opportunity to fight Magomedov came up.
In some other fights, Hamdy Abdulwahab defeated Jamel Puguez by unanimous decision of 27-30, 29-28 and 29-28. Boydin Grad defeated Lucas Alexander via knockout with 4mins 22seconds left for Round 2 to end.
Sergei Pavlovich decisioned Rozonstiuk Jairvinho 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in the heavyweight bout. Fares Ziam also won over Mike Denis 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in the Lightweight category. Said Nurmagomedov lost to Vinicius Oliveira 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28 in the Bantamweight class.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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