The unbeaten record of Israel Adesanya came to an unexpected end after he was recently defeated by Jan Blachowicz in the UFC 259 light heavyweight championship in Las Vegas.
The Nigerian Mixed Martial Artist encountered his first professional defeat after he losing to his Polish opponent in the fifth round via a unanimous decision. All the three judges gave ranked Blachowicz winner with a scorecard of 49–46, 49–45, 49–45 at the end of the fight.
In his reaction to the loss, Adesanya insisted that the fight did not go as planned. He added that he was not able to sleep before the fight.
While talking to UFC on BT Sport by the ringside, he said: “No, not exactly because I thought I was going to win and you know, I couldn’t sleep last night and instead of doing wines I was doing lines just to stay up
“They got me one of these (bottle of wine) and I probably should have had it maybe I would have slept better.
“Yes it didn’t go the way I wanted it but dare to be great, you know the critics are on the sidelines but I am the one putting my life on the line.”
When he was asked if he regretted moving up to the next ladder in the sports, he said: “I don’t have any reason to question my reason to move up, that was just my legs being fatigues. I don’t know what from but I have to watch the tape.
“I knew what I had to do and I was trying to do, besides, they played a fast one blocking my techniques but my techniques could have been a lot more finer, it made me look like I had a bodyguard but I promise you, it was like a bad day in the gym except its in the office tonight.
“This is not a one-off, I have to be back but like I said, dare to be great. Thank you all, eyin gbogbo Naija (all of you in Nigeria) and everyone rooting for me, thanks for the support, like I said, dare to be great, but for now, back to the gym.”
