UFC 253 Results: Post-Fight Stats For Israel Adesanya Vs. Paulo Costa

UFC president Dana White was angry with how the middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero played out. When the UFC boss announced that Adesanya’s second title defense would come against the hard charging Paulo Costa in the main event of UFC 253, White seemed almost giddy with excitement. He proclaimed Costa would make Adesanya fight and repeatedly said the bout would be a contender for “Fight of the Year.” It turns out that was not true. The matchup wasn’t even “Fight of the Night.”

That’s not to say the fight wasn’t good. It was, but it was entirely one sided and the side that dominated was Adesanya.

Costa was not his normal aggressive self in the early going of the fight. He was reserved in his striking and instead of throwing big destructive punches, Costa seemed more interested in getting Adesanya to attack him and open himself up to counters. That was never going to happen.

Instead, Adesanya tore into the lead leg of the title challenger. Each strike was designed to slow Costa and pay dividends later in the fight. By the middle of the second stanza, Costa’s leg was showing bruising as he ate kick after kick and refused to check any of the strikes. When Costa did attack, Adesanya slipped the punch, stepped to the side and delivered a perfect counter that dropped Costa to the mat. Adesanya then swarmed his opponent on the ground and landed eight of 10 ground strikes before referee Jason Herzog stepped in to wave off the bout at the 3:59 mark of the second stanza.

Adesanya overwhelmed Costa. The champion was never in danger and left the octagon without a mark on his face and the 185-pound title over his shoulder.

After his win, Adesanya said his next opponent could be the hard-hitting Jared Cannonier, who is scheduled to face former champion Robert Whittaker in October at UFC 254.

UFC 253 took place last night in Abu Dhabi. The main card streamed on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN+ and ESPN2 and early prelims on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass.

Below are the stats from the fight between Adesanya and Costa.

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