The best and worst from UFC 230

#2 Best: The Stylebender is for real

Israel Adesanya dismantled Derek Brunson in his best showing to date

When Israel Adesanya lived up to his nickname and styled on Rob Wilkinson in his UFC debut back in February, it was clear he was a prospect to watch. But then he struggled to beat Marvin Vettori and lost some of his lustre. A lot of that was gained back when he dismantled Brad Tavares in the summer, but question marks still hung around the Nigerian-Australian kickboxer going into last night’s show.

Not any more, though. Adesanya was faced with his toughest test to date – a proven, top-ten ranked veteran in Derek Brunson – and he simply destroyed him, making it look easy in the process. Brunson tried his takedowns, tried to close the distance, but Adesanya was simply on another level and never seemed in difficulty for a second.

The most impressive thing by far about ‘The Last Stylebender’ was the way he finished Brunson off. After hurting him with a counter-knee when Brunson shot in for a takedown, rather than wildly swarm on him, Adesanya picked his shots, landed clean blow after clean blow, and eventually put Brunson down with a beautiful right hand.

After the fight, Joe Rogan mentioned exactly what I was thinking myself – that the performance reminded him of Anderson Silva’s knockout of Chris Leben back in 2006. Whether Adesanya can reach the heights that Silva did is difficult to say, but there’s no doubt that he’s a title contender, and he might be the best striker at 185lbs, too. Can you imagine a fight between him and Robert Whittaker? Wow.