Israel Adesanya retained his middleweight title at UFC 271 in Houston, Texas by defeating Australian, Robert Whittaker early on Sunday morning.
Making his fourth consecutive title defence in front of 6,000 fans packed into the Toyota Centre, the reigning UFC middleweight champion outsmarted Whittaker in a unanimous decision after five rounds.
The referees’ final scorecards read 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47 with Adesanya moving to 22-1 in his career record.
On Judges Jacob Montalvo and Doug Crosby’s rating, Adesanya won the first three rounds with Whittaker taking the final two. Judge Mike Beltran had Adesanya winning all but the second round, which he gave to Whittaker.
Adesanya out-landed Whittaker 79-59 in significant strikes, according to UFC Stats. But Whittaker landed more significant strikes to the head, 38-36, with Adesanya out-landing Whittaker in strikes to the legs, 29-13.
On his part, Whittaker landed four takedowns, which matched Marvin Vettori for the most by any opposing fighter against Adesanya in the UFC, according to ESPN Stats and Information Research.
Coming in, ESPN had Adesanya ranked No. 2 and Whittaker ranked No. 9 on its MMA pound-for-pound rankings. At middleweight, Adesanya was No. 1 and Whittaker No. 2.
Adesanya (22-1) had in October 2019 stopped Whittaker via second-round knockout at UFC 243 to win the title. – With agency reports
