Israel Adesanya beat Cannonier to retain UFC middleweight title

Israel Adesanya has defeated America’s Jared Cannonier to retain his middleweight belt title in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 276.

The 32-year-old Nigerian-born New Zealand professional mixed martial artist was adjudged the winner over the ‘Gorilla’ in a unanimous decision (49-46,49-46, 50-45).

The encounter took place at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.

The first round saw Cannonier struggled to contain with the low kicks and a couple of piston-like jabs from ‘Izzy’.

Adesanya toyed with his opponent in the second round while the American martial artist lacked the technical prowess to do much damage to his opponent.

Round three saw Cannonier making a few unsuccessful attempts to take down Adesanya.

The ‘Last Stylebender’, who thrilled fans with a homage to WWE star The Undertaker in his walkout, was too strong for his challenger as he defended his title.

The Nigerian-born New Zealander has successful defended his middleweight category title five times now after unifying the belt with Whittaker in 2019.

He is dubbed number one pound-for-pound fighter in his category.

Adesanya (23-1) is undefeated at 185 pounds, a perfect 11-0 in the UFC in that weight class.