2021 City Kickboxing UFC Tracker: One Win, Two Losses, Lots to Learn
Win or learn. For a team like City Kickboxing, defeats to Carlos Ulberg and Israel Adesanya at UFC 259 will provide a funky platform for them to build upon moving deeper into 2021. Despite losing those fights somewhat comprehensively, there is clarity in how those losses came to be and with Kai Kara-France grabbing an impressive win, the post-UFC 259 vibe is one of mellow positivity.
Let's start with Ulberg, who was finished via strikes in the second round of his bout vs Kennedy Nzechukwu. Ulberg started the fight in impressive fashion and his striking is uber slick, full of rapid combinations and signs of the Team CKB fakes that set up a variety of strikes. Unfortunately for Ulberg, it looked as though the buzz and hype of a UFC debut took over and is often the case, this led to Ulberg getting caught up in the 1-outs/stand-and-bang style.
Ulberg sat in front of Nzechukwu, with minimal movement which resulted in Nzechukwu landing more and more heavy shots as the fight went on. The stats below tell a story of what Ulberg does well and who he is as a light heavyweight fighter, however the fact that Ulberg stood right in front of a heavy hitter can't be measured. Nerves, inexperience at this level and the fighting instinct took over for Ulberg in this fight and this is unlikely to happen again - not with Team CKB.
Significant Strikes Landed
Nzechukwu: 82/148.
Ulberg: 146/227.
Ulberg was slicker with his strikes, threw more and looked good.
Kicks Landed
Nzechukwu: 0/0.
Ulberg: 14/15.
Body Shots Landed
Nzechukwu: 1/4.
Ulberg: 31/37.
Ulberg is low key known as the best kicker at Team CKB and that was on display. He showcased a variety of strikes with the kicks and body shots.
Nzechukwu landed 98 percent of his strikes on Ulberg's head. Despite all of the above, Nzechukwu landed the heavier shots on Ulberg and Ulberg's noggin wasn't hard to hit.
Ulberg did look impressive though and will chalk this fight up as a learning experience.
Kai Kara-France needed a win the most of these three lads and against a bloke who has 11 of his 16 wins via submission, Kara-France found himself wrapped up by Bontorin for 3:15 of the 4:55mins of this fight. Bontorin attempted one takedown and snapped up his chance to take the fight where he wanted it, plus Kara-France lost his last fight vs Brandon Royval via submission; guillotine choke to be exact and Bontorin was all over Kara-France's neck for most of those 3:15mins.
No panic, just rolling through defensive moves. Kara-France zoned in on Bontorin's hands while wrapped up, not allowing Bontorin to do what he wanted to and Kara-France soon wriggled free. This is crucial because Kara-France is Mr Don't Blink for a reason and with the mandatory Team CKB striking excellence, Kara-France showed the required defensive grappling to challenge the best of this division.
From there, well don't blink. Kara-France has rapid hands. The left jab is swiftly followed by a second, or a heavy right hand and Kara-France's best attribute is his power.
These don't align perfectly, however it offers clarity as to how these two fights played out...
Kara-France: 3:15mins under grappling control of 4:55mins - 66.10 %.
Adesanya: 7.06mins of 25mins - 28.4 %.
In both fights, Kara-France and Adesanya spent a lot of time with their opponent in a dominant grappling position. Adesanya spent less time of his fight under such control than Kara-France, but Kara-France won his fight. More than anything, this shows how impressive Kara-France's win was as he spent 66.10 percent of his fight with a bloke all over him and then finished that bloke.
Moving up a weight division, Adesanya didn't have to deal with Blachowicz's takedowns too much in the opening rounds. This was when Adesanya looked his best and while the UFC commentary made it seem like Adesanya was genuinely dominating Blachowicz, Blachowicz held his own in striking with Adesanya and was clearly saving his takedowns/grappling for later in the fight.
Blachowicz Grappling Control
Round 1: 0:00.
Round 2: 0:00.
Round 3: 1:07mins.
Round 4: 3.29mins.
Round 5: 2:30mins.
Adesanya has 82 percent takedown defence and all of Team CKB has such defensive abilities to balance out their striking. Most of that is in the middleweight division, however Adesanya was still able to escape Blachowicz's takedowns when close to the fence and his issues came in the middle of the octagon. The last takedown from Blachowicz was especially impressive as he was able to get through the maze of Adesanya fakes/faints and time his takedown perfectly; with a bigger bloke on top of him, Adesanya couldn't do too much.
Given how this fight played out, Adesanya didn't really do anything wrong. Blachowicz is easy to appreciate for kiwis as he's a quiet, humble dude who lost four of his first six UFC fights and kept on grinding to now be on a five-fight win streak. Adesanya is hunting greatness and a move up a weight division could have seen him blast off into unseen flying kiwi superstar status. Instead, the bigger bloke won in bigger bloke fashion.
In tough moments, you learn about yourself and others. From the outside looking in, we are learning a lot about Team CKB as they encounter losses. This was Adesanya's first loss and in true Aotearoa styles, led by one of the best Aotearoa coaches in operation right now Eugene Bareman, Team CKB dealt with these losses gracefully. Back to Aotearoa, back to hard mahi and the next challenge awaits.
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Peace and love.