UFC 276: Adesanya, Volkanovski Retain Belts, Pereira Sets His Clash With Izzy

Both Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski retained their respective UFC titles last night at the UFC 276. Adesanya defeated Jared Cannonier, while dominant Volkanovski trashed Max Holloway for the third time.

Apart from this, several other pretty good fights took place at the T-Mobile Arena last night.

Izzy was better than Cannonier after five rounds of dull fighting, during which the Last Stylebender beat the challenger. All three judges scored in his favor, two 49-46 and 50-45. The entire bout was low on action, and the fans went wild in the fourth round once they began booing and loudly displaying displeasure.

There's only one man @Stylebender wants next – and that's Alex Pereira 😤 #UFC276 pic.twitter.com/iFNbXt7hdE

— UFC (@ufc) July 3, 2022

Izzy outstruck Cannonier, 163-141, with the note that the challenger had a couple of clean hits but nothing special which would hurt Adesanya. He was in control on a couple of occasions but nowhere near being dangerous.

Still, Izzy credited Cannonier following the fight, as well as his corner.

“They had an excellent gameplan,” Adesanya said. “It was really hard to get my follow-ups going.”

He also spoke about his next fight, which would be against Alex Pereira, whose vicious knockout set on fire the social networks. The guy who holds two wins over the Last Stylebender won the Performance of the Night Bonus. Though, those victories have been in kickboxing, and things are different now. Adesanya mentioned that too.

“The first time I told you it was an error on my part spamming the right hand,” Adesanya said, addressing his comments to Pereira. “That was in kickboxing. … Next time I punch you, you’ll be on skates and you’re gonna be frozen like Elsa. I’ll leave it at that.”

Pereira didn’t speak too much about Izzy, but his domination in the octagon was impressive. The way he slashed Strickland was more than enjoyable to watch. A strong left hook dazzled the American, who tried to get up, but only to eat a hard straight right which finished the fight. All that after only 2:36.

Meanwhile, Volkanovski put an end to all the discussions regarding his greatness, proving that he is better than Holloway and a greater champion too. The Aussie outperformed the opponent in all aspects of the fight, with all three judges scoring 50-45 in his favor.

Constant hits with the right jab were an unsolvable mystery for the Blessed, who couldn’t breathe from pressure. Late in the second, he opened a cut above Holloway’s left eye, and from that moment on, it was obvious that there was no way back for the Blessed.

“Look, Max Holloway is an absolute beast,” Volkanovski said. “That intensity he brought, that we both had the last few days, I needed it. I really needed it. I had to get him out of here. I knew I’m the best. I needed to remind myself.”

Max Holloway has been transported to the hospital following his bout against Alexander Volkanovski

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) July 3, 2022

Volk has 22 wins in a row, and is undefeated in the UFC with 12 straight victories since joining the organization. For the moment, along with Kamaru Usman, Volk might be the most dominant fighter UFC has. Only three fighters had a 12-win opening streak in the UFC – Khabib, Kamaru, and Anderson Silva.

In other fights, Bryan Barberena beat Robbie Lawler, knocking out the veteran in the second round. Sean O’Malley and Pedro Munhoz also saw a stoppage in the second round, but theirs was due to an accidental eye poke from O’Malley. The bout was declared a no contest.

The fans had a chance to see a farewell from one of the UFC greats, as Donald Cerrone announced his retirement following a loss to Jim Miller via guillotine choke at 1:32 of the second round.