The torch has been passed.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, was outstruck by rising 185-pound contender, Israel Adesanya, in their UFC 234 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last weekend in Melbourne.
Watch the video highlights here.
At the end of the third and final round, “The Last Stylebender” had a few words for “The Spider,” who was no doubt an influence on Adesanya when the former kickboxer was still trying to make a name for himself in combat sports.
“I led too much,” Adesanya told him after their fight. “I owe you, because I was like ‘Oh my god, here comes the flying knee!’ I was like ‘I’ve seen this before.’ We got you, from the bottom of my heart. You’re the man, you’ve been doing this for a long time. UFC 90, I still remember the DVDs. I’ve been watching you for a long time. This game, I’ve already seen it. This game is very crazy, a lot of snakes.”
Silva topped Patrick Cote at UFC 90 when “The Predator” blew out his knee.
Adesanya (16-0) will now move on to face the winner of Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum, who are expected to battle this summer. “The Reaper” was bounced from their UFC 234 main event after suffering from a collapsed bowel.
As for Silva (34-9, 1 NC), he appears to be committed to finishing up his UFC contract before hanging up the gloves for good. No question there are still plenty of match ups available to the 43 year-old Brazilian, for those fighters who aren’t too scared to face him.