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Israel Adesanya once again proved his dominance in the middleweight division with a second-round Technical Knockout (TKO) win over Paulo Costa in the main event of UFC 253 on Saturday.
The champion was in the driver’s seat for the first round. Costa showed some patience in waiting to commit to an attack but Adesanya took advantage of that wait-and-see approach by peppering him with leg kicks.
Costa was more interested in goading Adesanya into throwing more than actually throwing much himself.
The second round featured a more aggressive Adesanya and that was all kinds of bad news for the Eraser. The Last Stylebender opened up, continued to mercilessly attack the lead leg while also throwing head kicks. When he targeted the head with punches Costa quickly buckled and the champion added another successful title defense to his name.
It was as baffling a performance for Paulo Costa as it was a great performance for Adesanya. The champion was surely dominant but Costa’s lack of activity and inability to mount any offense had analysts wondering what happened to the Borrachina that mowed over each of his opponents to this point.
Adesanya has already made quick work of a loaded middleweight division. His list of wins includes Anderson Silva (albeit an older version of The Spider), Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero. There are some highly ranked contenders out there, but only one has the champion’s eye right now.