After Aljamain Sterling, Israel Adesanya Drops the Truth About Marc Goddard Incident That Led Him to Lose His Title to Alex Pereira at UFC 287

Aljamain Sterling lost his title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292. ‘Suga’ caught the New York native flush on the chin with a well-timed right in the second round, downing him. The Montana native followed up with ground-and-pound against a Sterling that was fighting back. But, as ‘Funkmaster’ turned and got on all fours, the fight was stopped by referee Marc Goddard.

Many, including the commentators felt the stoppage might be a bit early. After all, Sterling looked to still be defending. Plus, it is expected of a referee to give champions a little more wiggle room when defending their belts. And middleweight champion Israel Adesanya also talked about Goddard stopping his first fight against Alex Pereira early, handing him a loss.

Israel Adesanya talks about referee Marc Goddard

In an interview with the ‘Combat TV’ YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya talked about his loss to Alex Pereira last year at Madison Square Garden. He also talked about his first loss in the UFC against Kelvin Gastelum back in 2019, also reffed by Goddard. He opined that the British referee gave Gastelum a record number of chances to get up after he knocked him down.

“[After the first Pereira fight] I said it’s the ref, like I’m fine. And people were still like Oh and I had already been over it. But I’m like, look, if like Goddard refereed my Kelvin Gastelum fight. He gave him so many chances after I knocked him down, the most knockdowns in title fight history. And, I mean fair enough, you know,” Adesanya said.

Aljamain Sterling responds to fans saying his fight against ‘Suga’ was stopped early

Aljamain took to Twitter and responded to a fan who wrote that his bout against O’Malley was stopped prematurely. To his credit, he didn’t blame Goddard, the referee, and took full accountability for the loss.

Read More – “He Just Has This Spirit…” – Despite Being Known as His Arch Nemesis, Israel Adesanya Makes a Stunning Disclosure on Alex Pereira

“It was very odd to me. Rolling backwards to all 4’s isn’t showing intelligent defense, I guess. I never “went out”, was moving the on the ground, but that’s the game. All comes down to the ref judgement, which is out of my control. I should’ve never rushed the 2nd RD action. That’s on me,” he Tweeted.

Sterling may have lost the title, but the dignity and class with which he has handled his loss has gained him many new fans. He could have easily gone along with the early-stoppage narrative but chose to not blame the ref and put it on his haste in the second round. And that is how real champions do it.

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