Israel Adesanya, Carlos Ulberg, Blood Diamond UFC 271 Debrief
Another hefty UFC event and another middleweight championship defence from Aotearoa's Israel Adesanya at UFC 271, while Carlos Ulberg bounced back with a win and Blood Diamond fell victim to the weird dark arts. This lays out Team City Kickboxing mahi nicely as it highlights the turangawaewae of Adesanya as one of the most dominant forces in the UFC and in the Ulberg/Diamond bracket we have the path to UFC growth laid out nicely.
Diamond lost to Jeremiah Wells in a fight that can easily be thrown in the 'flush the dunny' category. From the opening bell Wells scampered sideways, slipped and Diamond rushed in to take advantage only to fall into the grappling strength of Wells. This fight lasted 4:38 minutes and Wells had 4:25mins 'control time' after a weird mistake.
Any Team CKB match up features the battle between striking prowess and grappling. We know Team CKB is in tune with Aotearoa's world-class striking lineage and all of their Mixed Martial Arts success has come without the same history or lineage in grappling. Diamond didn't even get a chance to do any striking while standing and quickly found himself in a position where his first UFC fight was all about grappling.
Of course, learning and growth is required. After watching Diamond pounce on what appeared to be an opportunity, Ulberg showcased his composure in dismantling Fabio Cherant for his first UFC light heavyweight win. Ulberg landed 66/112 Significant Strikes and Wells managed just 13/41, with the vast majority of Ulberg's strikes coming from distance.
That tells the story of a striking clinic. The type of clinic that Adesanya routinely dishes out and the type of clinic that Diamond feels capable of. While Ulberg lost his UFC debut in a different fashion to Diamond, there was a similar vibe as Ulberg appeared frantic in his debut, leading to eager mistakes. Ulberg went back to the Team CKB laboratory and emerged with a clinical performance, now Diamond has the same opportunity ahead of him.
Keep in mind that despite their ample experience, Ulberg and Diamond are adjusting to the UFC. Adesanya is well versed in all things UFC and this stretches from UFC business to supreme control of his energy in championship bouts. Since making his UFC debut in 2018, Adesanya has 11 straight wins in the middleweight division and has now defeated the next best middleweight's Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori twice.
Let's take stock of this rather funky journey...
2018: Rob Wilkinson (Perth), Marvin Vettori (Arizona), Brad Tavares (Las Vegas), Derek Brunson (New York).
2019: Anderson Silva (Melbourne), Kelvin Gastelum (Atlanta), Robert Whittaker (Melbourne).
2020: Yoel Romero (Las Vegas), Paulo Costa (UAE).
2021: Jan Blachowicz (Las Vegas), Marvin Vettori (Arizona).
2022: Robert Whittaker (Houston).
We would all love to see Adesanya fighting in Aotearoa, although when peeping around Aotearoa's sporting excellence there is a heavy overseas vibe. Steven Adams and Lydia Ko do all their mahi overseas, the Flying Kiwis experience is based on footballin' exports. Aotearoa sport isn't about what's happening in Aotearoa, it's about the adventurous Aotearoa mana and excellence around the world. Adesanya is an undefeated UFC middleweight, making his case to be the greatest ever and has done so in various countries during a pandemic. Pure Aotearoa mana.
The key Adesanya ploy of establishing an early kicking game was again evident against Whittaker. This is a general Team CKB tactic as well, but is crystal clear with Adesanya as he tends to build into the fight while absorbing information during the first round. Adesanya can control distance while computing this information with his kicks to the lead leg, while also ripping his opponent's leg up to mess with want they want to do.
Adesanya landed 11/14 kicks in the first round, while Whittaker landed 5/8. Adesanya then landed 7/9 kicks in the second round before sitting between 3-4 kicks for the remaining three rounds. Slide back to the rematch against Vettori who was also chatting about his wrestling prowess and Adesanya landed 11/12 kicks in the first round, before landing 6-9 kicks in each of the next four rounds.
How did Adesanya establish control against Paulo Costa? 15/16 kicks in the first round, then 11/11 before the second round finish.
The notable difference is in the first fight vs Whittaker. Adesanya only landed 2/2 kicks and then 5/5 before the second round finish, serving up one of the few Adesanya fights in which his opponent had more kicks than him; Whittaker's 9/14 vs Adesanya's 7/7. I don't have an explanation, just the theory that Adesanya was keen to play counter in the first Whittaker fight - so let him in the front door.
For this rematch, Adesanya lit up Whittaker's front leg early. Whittaker then improved throughout the fight as Adesanya's kicking decreased, however Adesanya dipped into his grappling quiver to ensure that Whittaker's 4/10 Takedown Attempts and 3:40mins of Control Time had no effect on the fight. Adesanya was slick in snuffing Whittaker's takedowns as he moved to the octagon fence, fought off Whittaker's hands and stuck to the Team CKB plan of escape.
Here we have the real wizardry of Adesanya and Team CKB.
Blood Diamond will develop this at the UFC level. Ulberg landed 2/2 takedowns during his striking clinic and will need to show defensive skills soon enough. Brad Riddell has 62 percent Takedown Defence and has flexed this skillset in his four UFC wins. Kai Kara-France has 87 percent Takedown Defence and well, do you get the point?
Team CKB have changed UFC striking and continue to maintain a world-class standard. Adesanya's move up a weight class saw the bigger, heavier Blachowicz win via his grappling control and in the two fights at middleweight since that fight, Adesanya has shut down two lads who thought their wrestling would be good enough. That's the mark of Adesanya's greatness, a bloke who is now a certified upper-echelon Aotearoa sporting hero.
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Peace and love.