Israel ‘Stylebender’ Adesanya has reacted to his Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighting Championship defeat to Jan Blachowicz.
The 31-year-old bowed out in the fifth round to give Blachowicz victory with scores of 49-46, 49-45 and 49-45 respectively.
Reacting after the defeat, Adesanya described the night “like a bad day at the gym,” CBS reports.
“It didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, but dare to be great,” he said. “The critics are the ones on the sidelines, but I’m the one putting it on the line.”
The Nigerian revealed that he would return to his middleweight division and won’t give up the light heavyweight division despite suffering a defeat in his first outing on the level.
“I rule them with an iron black fist,” Adesanya said. “I’m going to go back down and handle business. If you want to get off the hype train, get the f— off the hype train. We’re just stopping for gas. If you want to stay on, I promise I’ll make you proud.”
Blachowicz who holds a fight card of 28 wins and 8 defeats also spoke after the fight.
“I thought that he would be a little bit faster, but he doesn’t hit so hard,” he said. “He (Adesanya) was slower, but he hit harder, this was something I didn’t expect. I should do my left hand a little bit more, I should do more jabs, put more pressure on him. But game plan is one, and fight is second, a different thing.”
Adesanya’s defeat to the Polish fighter was his first after 21 fight on the octagon, failing to join Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Henry Cejudo as one of the five fighters in UFC history to hold titles in two divisions simultaneously.
