Adesanya retained the title against Vettori

Nigeria’s Israel Adesanya successfully defended his middleweight belt in the main event of UFC 263 at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Adesanya had little trouble outpointing Italian Marvin Vettori by a wide unanimous decision. Vettori made a bid to take the fight to the canvas, but on the few occasions he did, he failed to capitalize on his weight advantage.

On the other hand, Adesanya was effective in the stand-up fight and managed to land better punches even though in the final stats the two finished evenly matched.

Vettori took Adesanya to the canvas in the first round after stopping him with a kick and taking him down while he was unable to support himself, then tried to submit him with a rear-naked choke that looked to be a lock, but the Nigerian defended himself and spun with relative ease to get in favorable position in mount, although he also failed to punish the Italian.

The final numbers were 122 total punches for Adesanya to 91 for Vettori, while in power punches the difference was 96-58, in knockdowns the Italian won by landing four in 14 attempts to none for the champion.

After five rounds, the judges gave identical cards 50-45 in favor of Adesanya to decree victory by unanimous decision.

This is Adesanya’s reunion with victory after going undefeated in his bid to capture the semi-completeweight title and losing by unanimous decision to Jan Blachowicz.

After winning the interim title against Kelvin Gastelum and unifying against Robert Whittaker, Adesanya (21-1) defended the belt against Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa.

For Vettori (17-5-1), it’s the end of a streak of five straight wins and he also missed the chance to avenge his split decision loss to Adesanya in April 2018.

“You can think about that [that you won], whatever helps you sleep at night,” Adesanya stated after the fight referring to Vettori, who disagreed with the loss.

Adesanya also challenged Whittaker to fight again, but this time in Auckland, New Zealand, where he has his camp.

“You are not going to decide, I decide,” Adesanya said, “because I am the king.”