UFC 271: Israel Adesanya Outpoints Robert Whittaker, Tai Tuivasa Faceplants Derrick Lewis
Israel Adesanya has done it again.
Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker via unanimous decision in the main event of UFC 271. With the win, Adesanya retained his middleweight title belt.
Adesanya and Whittaker both showed some massive improvement since their first clash, but it did not change the winner between this rivalry.
In the first round, Adesanya maintained the kicking distance and outstroke Whittaker from the outside. However, Whittaker showed some massive fighting IQ after losing the first round so clearly.
In the second round, Whittaker offered a relatively closer round to the challenger, and one of the judges, Mike Beltran, gave that round to him.
Whittaker started becoming more active in the fourth and fifth rounds and even got some takedowns. He also landed several great left hands, and Jacob Mantoly and Doug Crosby gave that championship rounds to Bobby Knuckles.
But it was Adesanya won unanimously with the judges’ scorecards 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46.
“I’m the champ. You want it, COME GET IT!” 👑
[ @Stylebender | #UFC271 ] pic.twitter.com/016tVvjWeT
— UFC (@ufc) February 13, 2022
In the co-main event, Tai Tuivasa shocked the world again, and Derrick Lewis suffered another loss in his hometown.
The Black Beast had many opportunities to finish this fight early, but Tuivasa landed massive elbows in the second round, and Lewis fell like a piece of wood.
Tuivasa will likely enter in the top 5, and he is not very far away from his dream title shot.
Derek Brunson is not undefeated anymore.
He attempted to takedown Jared Cannonier in the first round, so he was gassed out. Brunson almost earned finish 10 seconds before the first round, but his opponent managed to survive.
In the second round, Cannonier landed a massive elbow, and even though Brunson did not fall, it was evident that he was finished. Cannonier is back in business with the title run.
Check out the rest of the results down below:
- Israel Adesanya def Robert Whittaker Unanimous Dec
- Tai Tuivasa def Derrick Lewis KO/TKO, 1:40 R2
- Jared Cannonier def Derek Brunson KO/TKO, 4:29 R2
- Renato Moicano def A. Hernandez Sub, 1:23 R2
- Bobby Green def Nasrat Haqparast Unanimous Dec
- Andrei Arlovski def Jared Vanderaa Split Dec
- Casey O’Neill def Roxanne Modafferi Split Dec
- Kyler Phillips def Marcelo Rojo Sub, 1:48 R3
- Carlos Ulberg def Fabio Cherant Unanimous Dec
- Ronnie Lawrence def Mana Martinez Unanimous Dec
- Jacob Malkoun def AJ Dobson Unanimous Dec
- D. Silva de Andrade def Sergey Morozov Sub, 3:34 R2
- Jeremiah Wells def Blood Diamond Sub, 4:38 R1
- Maxim Grishin def William Knight Unanimous Dec