The worlds of both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts clashes more than once on last night’s monumental UFC 276 card in Las Vegas, Nevada – with event headliner, Israel Adesanya, stealing the show with his Undertaker-inspired walkout ahead of his main event outing against Jared Cannonier.
Headlining last night’s T-Mobile Arena event against the #2 ranked challenger, Cannonier, Israel Adesanya successfully defended his undisputed middleweight crown for the fifth time – courtesy of a rather routine unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) triumph over the course of five rounds.
Israel Adesanya managed to comfortably out-point Jared Cannonier over five rounds
Employing a patented and familiar, distance management gameplan against Cannonier – similar to approaches in recent matchups against the trio of Robert Whittaker, Marvin Vettori, and Yoel Romero – Israel Adesanya coasted over the course of the latter rounds to continue his perfect career run at 185lbs.
Treated to a pair of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) styled walkouts last night, Jessica-Rose Clark kicked off proceedings on the early preliminary card, walking out to WWE SuperStar, Shawn Michaels’ theme song, ‘Sexy Boy’.
Ahead of the night’s main event, however, Adesanya stole the show – right in front of WWE leaders and operators, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H – walking out to a flood of purple lights and smoke, donning a cowboy hat, and an urn – with the name of ‘Jared’ engraved on it, all to the music of professional wrestling legend and Hall of Fame inductee, The Undertaker.
Here. He. Comes.
[ @Stylebender | #UFC276 ] pic.twitter.com/Bv54ObOkyr
— UFC (@ufc) July 3, 2022
Off the back of a successful title defense against Cannonier, Adesanya already set his aim on defense number six – welcoming the opportunity to avenge two kickboxing losses to middleweight punisher, Alex Pereira.
Earlier on the main card, the Sao Paulo kickboxing ace managed to land a spectacular KO win over the #4 ranked, Sean Strickland in a billed potential title-eliminator – earning his third consecutive UFC victory.
Back in 2017, Pereira, a former two-weight GLORY Kickboxing champion, landed his second career win over City Kickboxing staple, Adesanya, stopping the striking ace with a brutal left hook knockout in his native Brazil.