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UFC 259 saw Israel Adesanya handed his very first loss in MMA. With many expecting this to be another addition to his budding legacy, where does his defeat place him going forward?
When the fight between Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz was confirmed, many saw this as something of a ‘give-me’ for the New Zealander. His star power was booming on the back of his demolition of Paulo Costa on ‘Fight Island’. The fight world seemingly his oyster, he had a growing super-fight bubbling with UFC star, Jon Jones and was quickly becoming the company’s go-to star behind Conor McGregor.
Leading up to the bout, one would be forgiven for overlooking Jan Blachowicz – simply for the fact the was not the protagonist of story, but rather an obstacle feeding into the arc of Adesanya’s growing stardom. He was the big, heavy monster to be slain, but to his credit, he didn’t let the moment phase him.
The Pole just a couple of years ago was fighting for his Octagon future, yet, he rose and fought back – obliterating Dominick Reyes to capture the gold, a man who many had believed to beat Light Heavyweight legend Jon Jones. For all the attention that was being placed on the narrative of Adesanya, Blachowicz was quietly building quite the comeback story too.
Whilst the fight didn’t provide the fireworks many had expected, the seeming million dollar question is what does this loss do for the Middleweight champion? Prior to his clash with Blachowicz, he had thrashed every foe that stood before him. A similar display was seemingly expected here, with Adesanya widely expected to be too quick and too technical for Jan. Even with the rumblings about the size and weight difference, few truly had an expectation for the Pole.
Throughout the opening exchanges, Israel proved to be quite the puzzle for Blachowicz. He would bite at every feint, as his foe would manoeuvre around the Octagon like a matador attempting to bait the bull. Although, as time began to press toward the championship rounds, neither man had done much of note until Blachowicz initiated the grappling.
With many wondering how Adesanya would deal with the size discrepancy, those questions were answered immediately – Blachowicz’s larger and heavier frame gave him a huge advantage in the grappling, with Israel unable to explode out of exchanges or force a scramble.
The fight would hit the mat again in the final round, with Jan keeping it there for majority of the round. An anti-climatic end to quite the anti-climatic fight. And just like that, Israel Adesanya had been defeated. The man who had stormed to the UFC Middleweight title had fallen in unspectacular fashion.
As the 0 on his record would fade, as would the potential super-fight with Jon Jones – but what about his star power? Would his value take a hit? The answer is not really. While he may no longer be unbeaten, he wasn’t outclassed or spectacularly knocked out, he wasn’t hurt or battered.
‘The Last Stylebender’ may be disappointed, it’s worth remembering that he did indeed take a risk here. He may not have left the Apex with another gold belt but he did leave with his reputation and star-power very much intact.
He said in his post-fight interview: ‘dare to be great,’ and whilst he did indeed take the dare, the truth is he simply stumbled against a larger challenge. Similarly to former UFC star, BJ Penn, who attempted to defeat Georges St-Pierre for a second title only to be defeated.
Much like Israel, Penn was a superstar in MMA at the time. However, unlike Adesanya, B.J saw the towel thrown in after being beat down by St-Pierre. Although, following the loss, the Hawaiian would go onto have some of the best bouts in his career, maintaining much of his star power.
Adesanya is seemingly on a similar pathway at this point in time. He was unsuccessful in his bid to make even further history in his career, but all is not lost. The reigning champion still remains very much atop the game and atop of the 185 division with options still available to him.
