Israel Adesanya earns title shot after out-gunning 'Anderson Silva of old'

Israel Adesanya has cemented his place as one of the UFC's hottest rising stars by taking down UFC legend Anderson Silva on an extraordinary day in which Aussie Rob Whittaker was forced from his title fight.

It doesn’t feel right to say Anderson Silva lost to Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 234.

Adesanya deserved his unanimous decision victory without doubt and he will fight for the middleweight title in the near future.

And Silva can never again be what he once was. This fight shut the door on any real aspiration he may have held of regaining the middleweight title he owned for six glorious years.

But in the moment none of that seemed to matter. Glimpses of the old Silva rose from the past across the three rounds, temporary and brilliant flashes of the era where he was counted as the greatest ever to grace the Octagon.

Incredible display of respect between the two fighters.

An Adesanya massacre, the smart prediction beforehand, would have been sad evidence of Silva’s decline. Instead, the fight felt like a celebration.

Silva dodged and ducked with incredible speed and timing, just like the old days. He good-naturedly taunted Adesanya, as he did to so many foes. More than once the New Zealander caught him with clean, three-punch combinations and the Brazilian barely blinked.

He hammed it up to press row when he came back to his corner between rounds. He went for wild flying knees and kept the younger man honest throughout. At one point in the second round he flat out chased Adesanya across the cage while hooting and hollering.

Some say Adesanya is Silva’s clone, a comparison both reject, but Silva did admit Adesanya lit a fire inside him that he’s missed in the past.

“Israel has a different game. I’m very impressed, Israel gave me a good challenge inside the cage,” Silva said.

“For a long time I didn’t feel that same challenge in my life.”

Adesanya did his part in a fight that dripped with theatrics from a kung fu movie. He fed off Silva’s showmanship and played to the crowd, he bobbed and weaved and showed all his sophistication as a striker.

It was strange and compelling, masterful and clownish, a masterpiece painted outside the lines – in short, it was everything an Anderson Silva fight used to be, a combination of artisanal brutality and showmanship.

Afterwards Adesanya almost seemed sheepish to take down one of his idols in such fashion – in the post-fight interview he compared the experience to playing basketball against Michael Jordan.

Silva showed all his class and experience in the three round war.

“I had fun in there, like I said I would. I showed off, and he’s a good dance partner,” Adesanya said.

“That was cool as f**k.

“I said this is the end of the first movie, where I get to fight the guy that brought me into the game.

“The best way I can say is that it was cool to share space with him, to play games with him.

“This was my title fight. I got to beat the guy who inspired me to get into this shit.”

As memorable as the fight was, this bout was well and truly a passing of the torch.

Anderson Silva attempts a flying knee.

Adesanya remains undefeated and will enter the triage at the head of the middleweight division with spurned challenger Kelvin Gastelum and champion Robert Whittaker.

The championship sun has set on Silva and risen with Adesanya. There will be plenty of legendary nights to come for the younger man but today, even in defeat, belonged to Silva.

In other results, rising Australia light-heavyweight Jim Crute earned his second UFC win with a controversial TKO of Sam Alvey. Crute sent the American crashing to the canvas with a thunderous right in the first round but there were suggestions the referee waved off the fight prematurely.

Kiwi pair Kai Kara-France and Shane Young both earned decision victories over Raulian Paiva and Austin Arnett respectively while Wentworthville’s Nadia Kassem was defeated by Montana De La Rosa via a second-round armbar. 

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Originally published as Israel Adesanya earns title shot after out-gunning 'Anderson Silva of old'