UFC 253: Israel Adesanya Cruises Through Paulo Costa

Many people predicted that Paulo Costa would present a stiff test for Israel Adesanya at UFC 253, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Round one

Adesanya fired a leg kick right away and Costa waved him on. Another kick to the leg from Adesanya. Costa returned fire with one of his own and then he went to the body with a kick. Adesanya planted another kick to the calf of Costa and the latter started to taunt. Costa followed up with a Yoel Romero impersonation. Hilarious. More leg kicks from Adesanya. The champ scored with a kick to the body and Costa picked up his pressuring.

Round two

Adesanya scored with a couple more leg kicks to begin round two. Costa missed with a head kick but he scored with one to the leg. Costa’s lead leg was extremely red at this point. Costa attempted to flurry in but Adesanya countered and moved out. Adesanya cracked Costa with a head kick and the challenger was cut above the right eye. Adesanya started going to his boxing more and moments later, he sent Costa to the deck. After landing a few more shots, the fight was stopped. Dominant, decisive win for “The Last Stylebender”. Wow.

UFC 253 results

Here are the results for UFC 252, which took place on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

Israel Adesanya def. Paulo Costa via TKO (punches) R2, 3:59
Jan Blachowicz def. Dominick Reyes via TKO (punches) R2, 4:36
Brandon Royval def. Kai Kara-France via submission (guillotine choke) R2, 0:48
Ketlen Vieira def. Sijara Eubanks via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Hakeem Dawodu def. Zubaira Tukhugov via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Brad Riddell def. Alex da Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jake Matthews def. Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Ludovit Klein def. Shane Young via KO (strikes) R1, 1:16
William Knight def. Aleksa Camur (206) via unanimous decision (29-28-30-27, 30-27)
Juan Espino def. Jeff Hughes via submission (arm-triangle) R1, 3:48
Danilo Marques def. Khadis Ibragimov via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)