UFC 263: Israel Adesanya schools Marvin Vettori to retain title, calls out Robert Whittaker
- ‘The Last Stylebender’ puts on a clinic to dominate all five rounds across the board in shutout against ‘The Italian Dream’
- ‘Bobby Knuckles, we need to run that back in Auckland, in my territory this time. I’ll decide where it is, because I’m the king,’ Adesanya says
Israel Adesanya put on a clinic in a five-round shutout of Marvin Vettori in Saturday night’s UFC 263 main event – and then the middleweight champ threw down the gauntlet to Robert Whittaker.
All three judges scored the contest 50-45 for “The Last Stylebender” (21-1), who outclassed Vettori (17-5-1) in the striking department and comfortably dealt with his takedowns at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
“The Italian Dream” argued the decision with Adesanya after it was read out, but there could be no debate this time – the 27-year-old was comfortably beaten in their rematch, after the Nigeria-born Kiwi struggled to a split decision win in 2018.
“I was just saying at the end of day, you don’t like me, I don’t like you, but this is martial arts, show some respect,” Adesanya said in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “I said I won, he said you didn’t win. I said you keep thinking that, whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Vettori’s dream of becoming the first Italian-born UFC champion went up in smoke, but arguably former champ Whittaker deserved this match-up more having bounced back from defeat to Adesanya in Melbourne, Australia in September 2020 with three wins.