UNITED STATES: Israel Adesanya defeated Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision and retained his UFC Middleweight Title. UFC 263 had a star studded lineup consisting of big names like Nate Diaz, Leon Edwards, Brandon Moreno, Deiveson Figueiredo, Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori. The UFC 263 event took place in Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona.
Main Card and Preliminary Card
The Main Card consisted of:
Israel Adesanya (c) vs. Marvin Vettori 2 for Adesanya’s Middleweight title
Deiveson Figueiredo (c) vs. Brandon Moreno 2 for Figueiredo’s Flyweight title
Leon Edwards vs. Nate Diaz; Welterweight
Demian Maia vs. Belal Muhammad; Welterweight
Paul Craig vs. Jamahal Hill; Light Heavyweight
The Preliminary Card consisted of:
Drew Dober vs. Brad Riddell; Lightweight
Eryk Anders vs. Darren Stewart; Light Heavyweight
Lauren Murphy vs. Joanne Calderwood; Women’s Flyweight
Movsar Evloev vs. Hakeem Dawodu; Featherweight
Pannie Kianzad vs. Alexis Davis; Women’s Bantamweight
Frank Camacho vs. Matt Frevola; Lightweight
Chase Hooper vs. Steven Peterson; Featherweight
Fares Ziam vs. Luigi Vendramini; Lightweight
Carlos Felipe vs. Jake Collier; Heavyweight
Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori
The UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya proved yet another time that why he is one of the best Middleweights on planet Earth.
Rank 4 Middleweight fighter Marvin Vettori was riding on a five fight winning streak and was confident that he will be the one to defeat Israel Adesanya at Middleweight.
Last time when Israel and Marvin fought against each other it was a very close encounter as Israel got the win by a split decision (29-28 scored by two judges for Adesanya and 29-28 scored by one judge for Vettori).
In a recent interview, Marvin said that he think that he got robbed of the victory and he clearly won the first fight whereas fans and most of the people thought that Israel did enough to win via split decision.
In UFC 263, Adesanya completely dominated Vettori right from the start. Vettori even tried to take Adesanya on the ground but Adesanya’s takedown defense was too good for Vettori. Adesanya’s brutal leg kicks did most of the damage to Marvin’s front leg and left him clueless.
In the end, Adesanya won by an unanimous decision and won every single round of their fight (50-45 scored by all three judges in favor of Israel Adesanya). After this fight Adesanya called out former Middleweight Champion and #1 ranked Middleweight title contender Robert Whittaker. Adesanya also said that he wants to defend his title in his hometown New Zealand.
Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno
The co-main event of UFC 263 was the most awaited fights this year. Last time, when Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno fought against each other it was declared a draw. Both the fighters wanted a second fight to prove who was the king of the flyweight division.
As soon as the fight started, Moreno looked extremely confident and even scored a knocked down in the very first round of the fight. Figueiredo didn’t knew how to stop Moreno and was a little confused that later resulted in a third round submission defeat.
Moreno won the Flyweight title and became the first Mexican to win a UFC title. Only four fighters have held the UFC 125lbs belt in 9 years of divisions history. Their names are:- Demetrius Johnson, Henry Cejudo, Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno.
Nate Diaz vs Leon Edwards
Leon Edwards was riding on a eight fight win streak before this fight. Leon’s last match against Belal Muhammad was declared a no-contest. The fighter wanted to win this fight against Nate Diaz so he could be back on track.
On the other hand, Nate Diaz last fought at UFC 244 in November 2019 where he lost to Jorge Masvidal by TKO in Round 3.
In UFC 263, Leon dominated Nate right from the beginning. Leon stayed calm and started throwing some good jabs and elbows. By the end of round 2 Nate’s face was bleeding heavily. But, the tough fighter kept fighting. Till the 5th round it looked like Leon is going to win comfortably. In the last 30 seconds, Nate threw a left hand and Leon wobbled and his legs gave up.
This was Nate’s chance to knock Leon out but Leon somehow managed to survive those last deadly 30 secs and won the fight via unanimous decision (49-46 scored by all three judges).
Also Read: UFC 262: Charles Oliveira vs Michael Chandler
The other fights of this events and full results are listed below:-
Israel Adesanya (c) def. Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Brandon Moreno (c) def. Deiveson Figueiredo via third-round submission (rear naked choke)
Leon Edwards def. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)
Belal Muhammad def. Demian Maia via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Paul Craig def. Jamahal Hill via first-round TKO (arm injury)
Brad Riddell def. Drew Dober via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Eryk Anders def. Darren Stewart via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)
Lauren Murphy def. Joanne Calderwood via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Movsar Evloev def. Hakeem Dawodu via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Pannie Kianzad def. Alexis Davis via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Terrance McKinney def. Matt Frevola via first-round TKO (punches)
Steven Peterson def. Chase Hooper via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Fares Ziam def. Luigi Vendramini via majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)
Carlos Felipe def. Jake Collier via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
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