On Sunday, Israel Adesanya defended his middleweight title by defeating Australian Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 in Houston, Texas.
In front of 6,000 fans packed into the Toyota Center, the reigning UFC middleweight champion won a unanimous decision after five rounds in his fourth consecutive title defense.
The final scores were 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47, and Adesanya improved to 22-1 in his career with the win.
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According to judges Jacob Montalvo and Doug Crosby, Adesanya won the first three rounds and Whittaker won the final two.
Judge Mike Beltran scored Adesanya as the winner of all but the second round, which he awarded to Whittaker.
According to UFC Stats, Adesanya outlanded Whittaker 79-59 in significant strikes.
However, Whittaker landed more significant strikes to the head, 38-36, while Adesanya outlanded Whittaker in leg strikes, 29-13.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Whittaker landed four takedowns, which tied him with Marvin Vettori for the most by any opposing fighter against Adesanya in the UFC.
On ESPN’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings, Adesanya was ranked No. 2 and Whittaker was ranked No. 9. Adesanya was ranked first at middleweight, while Whittaker was ranked second.
Adesanya (22-1) won the title by knocking out Whittaker in the second round at UFC 243 in October 2019.
