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Many fans have been questioning Israel Adesanya after his recent UFC middleweight title defenses have been deemed dull by some in the MMA community. However, in his most recent title defense, Adesanya threw and landed more punches than opponent Jared Cannonier.
'The Last Stylebender' landed a total of 163 strikes across the five-round title while hist, his opponent landed slightly less with 141 total strikes landed during the contest.
To put into context the number of strikes landed by the UFC middleweight champion, we can look at the other title fight on the UFC 276 fight card, which saw fan favorites Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway battle in a five-round bout.
Volkanovski outlanded Holloway by a wide margin, with the champion landing 204 total strikes and his opponent landing 161. Holloway just landed fewer strikes than Israel Adesanya, but Volkanovski once again outlanded both by a considerable margin.
It's clear from Adesanya's social media posts after the bout that the UFC champion is very aware of the criticism.
Perhaps 'The Last Stylebender' is simply too dominant in his recent bouts, with the champion rarely getting in serious trouble against Jared Cannonier. Some have suggested that might make his fights seem 'boring' due to the lack of excitement usually caused in a 50/50 fight.
What did Chael Sonnen say about Israel Adesanya's reputation?
Given the immediate criticism from some in the MMA community after Israel Adesanya claimed yet another UFC middleweight title defense against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276, Chael Sonnen felt the need to comment on the situation.
It was clear that 'The American Gangster' was confused by the critics and wondered what gave them the right to question such a dominant champion in a difficult division:
"Are you serious? You're actually questioning the champion? Who by the way, in a terrible performance according to the critics, won every single round. I get a little bit lost."
Watch Chael Sonnen speak about Israel Adesanya here:
According to the official scorecards, only Sal D'Amato awarded Adesanya with every round at UFC 276. Both Junichiro Kamijo and Derek Cleary scored the contest 49-46.
Nevertheless, it was still a very clear unanimous decision from the judges, which is seemingly the main reason why Sonnen was not pleased to see the criticism of Adesanya's performance.
