At the end of 25 minutes, Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero stood in the cage as boos from the Las Vegas crowd rained down on them, waiting to hear who had done enough to take home the UFC’s middleweight title.
As Bruce Buffer announced “and still the UFC middleweight champion of the world – Israel ‘the Last Stylebender’ Adesanya”, the boos didn’t relent.
It was a bout that had been highly anticipated; two of the best knockout artists in the middleweight division going toe-to-toe over a possible five rounds.
What they got wasn’t 25 minutes of non-stop violence, but instead it was a much more strategic battle – Adesanya trying to avoid the power of Romero; Romero trying to lure Adesanya into making a mistake.
It turned into a fight for the purists, with cage control, footwork, feinting and ability to get into range and quickly back out being important factors in Adesanya’s win; coupled with plenty of calf kicks which slowed Romero down.
“I did what I had to do and picked him apart,” Adesanya said after the fight. “The legs don’t lie. I f***ed his leg up. He was trying to do all this stuff to play it off, but I did what I had to do to win this fight.
“He plays the game in lulls. He’ll try to get you into a false sense of security. My coaches Eugene (Bareman), Mike (Angove), Andrei (Paulet) and Twist (Tristram Apikitoa), they said you need 25 minutes of sharpness and focus. I was hoping to touch him a little more, but unfortunately it’s hard to engage with someone who doesn’t want to dance.”
The fight looked destined to be not what anyone expected as soon as it began. As Adesanya squared up and began to feint, Romero stood, flat footed with his guard up. He didn’t come forward, he didn’t attempt a strike, and he barely moved. Adesanya was able to touch him with the odd strike as the 42-year-old Cuban stood behind his guard, but was woken up by a strong left hand counter from Romero which connected on Adesanya’s left eye.
At the end of the first round, Adesanya landed just three strikes to Romero’s four.
Sporting a slightly swollen eye, the Kiwi champion started to find his footing as the fight went on and Romero still did not offer anything in most of the exchange.
