Next time he might just need to bring a few more pounds, or at least pizzas, along with him.

He'll have relatively safe harbor there, but he'll need to return to 205 pounds if he wants to join the champ-champ club, which he very much does. Middleweight is and will remain his natural home-but he's also cleaned it out, or close enough. Men's bantamweight title bout: Aljamain Sterling (c) (20-3, 12-3 UFC) defeats Petr Yan (15-2, 7-1 UFC) via DQ (intentional foul) That was very illegal, it doesn't get much worse than that. And I'm gonna rule that b-h with my iron Black fist.'Īdesanya understands that legends need bigger story arcs than everyone else's. Pre-Order UFC 259 Now The 30-year-old Jones, who was born in New Orleans and now resides in Guam, turned a short-notice opportunity in August into a breakout effort by rallying to finish Timur. I'll definitely be back ,' Adesanya said. But for now, it looks like he's leaving light heavyweight in the rearview. Was Adesanya wrong not to add mass as part of his move up to light heavyweight? If this is what happened in his light heavyweight debut, imagine how lost he'd look at, say, heavyweight, against an opponent like, oh, I don't know, Jon Jones?īeing the consummate competitor and champion that he is, Adesanya told Rogan he'd be back. From that day to Saturday, it only took Adesanya 66 days to get his title shot. When UFC President Dana White announced the move in late December, he announced the title bout in the same breath. The champ again held Adesanya down for the rest of the round. About halfway through the round, Blachowicz scored another double-leg takedown.Īnd that, as they say, was all she wrote. Adesanya came forward a little more, but at this point, both fighters were slowing down. The outcome was still up in the air for the fifth. The rest of the round, which felt like it lasted maybe four hours, unfolded with Blachowicz mauling Adesanya on the mat. Even the pundits get one right sometimes.įor the first time in the fight and maybe his career, Adesanya was noticeably, almost startlingly the smaller man. One of the big keys to a Blachowicz victory on Saturday-using size and weight to break down the undersized Adesanya-was in evidence as the champ worked in half-guard and then in side control.

The first big offense of the fourth was also the evening's first real wrestling sequence, with Blachowicz putting Adesanya on his back with a clean power double. An emotional Aljamain Sterling shares his thoughts on what happened at the end of his bout with Petr Yan, which ended in disqualification and Sterling being. As the championship rounds began, it was still anybody's fight. The third round came and went much the same, with each man trading shots but only after longer periods of inactivity. Join us today on Bloody Elbow for live results, discussion, round scoring, and play-by-play as UFC 278 from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ufc 259 play by play