Nigerian-born UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya Adesanya, retained his UFC title with a second-round knockout of Brazilian Paulo Costa.
The win is his 20th career MMA victory. Adesanya came out with more purpose in the second round, outboxing his opponent and landing deadly shots.
In his previous fight, Adesanya beat Yoel Romero by decision at the UFC 248 pay-per-view event from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Adesanya delivered a perfect performance on Fight Island to retain his UFC middleweight title for the second time.
Costa was left bloodied and bruised on the canvas, with his undefeated record in tatters after being picked apart so ruthlessly needing medical attention after the referee waved off the fight.
isreal adesanya just disrespected paulo costa to a level i have never seen before. he LITERALLY fucked costa pic.twitter.com/ngUmftdKmo
— $ (@BEZ0Z) September 27, 2020
Adesanya became the new UFC middleweight champion when he finished Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 last October by TKO. Before that, he picked up a decision win over Kelvin Gastelum in the co-headliner of the UFC 236 pay-per-view event. Heading into this fight, he fought six times in less than a year-and-a-half total in the UFC and won all six bouts.
Costa was coming off a big win over Yoel Romero at the UFC 241 pay-per-view event. He previously beat Uriah Hall on the preliminary portion of the UFC 226
That was so “Izzy”. Congratulations, Israel Adesanya, the last style blender.#UFC253 pic.twitter.com/p5AZVAmnNB
— Omóbóládé Yusuff (@bollyart) September 27, 2020