WATCH: Pandemonium at UFC 281 as Leon Edwards, Aljamain Sterling, Kamaru Usman, Brandon Moreno & Others Look Stunned After Israel Adesanya Loss

The UFC 281 main event turned out to be a debacle for the Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya. ‘The Last Stylebender’ had to taste defeat at the hands of Alex Pereira in the bout. Over the course of four rounds, Adesanya maintained control of the fight. He also managed to land a significant strike at the end of the first round, which had Pereira going to the ground. However, ‘Poatan’ unleashed it all in the final round and knocked the former champion out to win gold in the fight.

A lot of other UFC fighters, including the Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards, former Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman, UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling, Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, and many more graced Madison Square Garden to witness the event. But they were utterly shock-stricken when the reality turned out to be opposite to their expectations.

Israel Adesanya’s defeat stunned other UFC fighters at the octagon-side

The results of the UFC 281 main event utterly bewildered the other UFC fighters present. A Twitter page called, ‘Out Of Context MMA’, posted the video of the fighters in the crowd reacting to Adesanya’s defeat. There wasn’t a single face shown in the video that could hide their disbelief at the result of the fight.

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They also rightly captioned the post, “This is the most depressing cage side reaction video ever #UFC281”

The shock-struck faces of Leon Edwards, Aljamain Sterling, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou said a lot about the disbelief. It is probably a ‘hand-changing’ year for the UFC championships.

Israel Adesanya faded out with the rounds

Pereira began the bout with a soaring kick, and after he missed, there was some initial hesitancy. Adesanya threw Pereira off balance two times. Once with a heavy right hand and the second time with a left hook at the closing moments.

‘Poatan’ landed a few hard strikes in the second round. Adesanya decided to switch to grappling after being hit. But Pereira went on to defend two takedown attempts from ‘The Last Stylebender’. This round could be called a very close one.

The takedown attempt from Adesanya finally landed in the third round. The former Middleweight Champion had his moments in this round. He subjected Pereira to some ground and pound and a gruesome axe kick to his body once he stood up.

The fourth round also went pretty well for the former champ. However, Pereira started to turn on his gas in the final round. Adesanya’s clinches couldn’t save him for long. ‘Poatan’ backed him up against the cage and started landing vicious blows to ‘Izzy’s’ face, which wobbled him. Adesanya tried to create some space by getting away from the striking Pereira. But he was stalked by ‘Poatan’ who pounded on ‘Izzy’ without a stop. Finally, the referee had to step in and stop the fight, awarding a standing TKO victory to the Brazilian.

Watch this Story – Five times Alex Pereira mocked rival Israel Adesanya ahead of UFC 281

What did you predict as the outcome of this highly touted bout? Did your prediction click? Or were you stunned by the results alike the cage-side fighters?