Nigerian-born mixed martial artist, Israel Adesanya has challenged Jared Cannonier to a fight after beating Brazilian Paulo Costa to retain his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title in Abu Dhabi on Saturday night.
The win takes his win to 20 professional victory with the champion yet to experience defeat in his career.
The Nigerian proved too much for Costa to handle in a dominant defense of his middleweight title, winning by TKO in the second round in the main event of UFC 253.
He took apart his bigger opponent in Abu Dhabi before landing decisive ground strikes in the second round to win the fight.
Adesanya dubbed ‘The Last Stylebender’ bloodied Costa’s face with a high kick at the start of the second round, and then dealt his opponent a major blow with a left counter punch to the dome. Costa stumbled backward and could not recover. The defeat left his undefeated record in tatters with the Brazilian needing medical attention after the referee called off the fight.
Adesanya has said he aims to make as much impact as his mentor, Anderson Silver. He also challenged Jared Cannonier to a fight.
After the fight, he said,
“I said it before, Anderson Silver left a huge legacy in this division and I said I wanted to do service to the middleweight division and that’s a tough act to follow but we’re doing the work.
“I already messaged Jared Cannonier, he is a hell of a dude, I love his energy, I said, you destroy Robert Whittaker, you are next. He’s the one I want to fight next.”