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Israel Adesanya suffered a defeat on his return at UFC 305 but as always, he was incredibly respectful and humble in defeat.

Fight fans have seen “The Last Stylebender” come up short on four occasions during his time in the promotion.

Which each loss, he has always continued to represent himself and his team incredibly well and this is something that his coach takes a lot of pride in.

The only slight exception to this was his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293, where Adesanya decided to not speak to the media but this was understandable after the amount of time he had spent doing his media duties throughout his UFC career.

In fact, the former middleweight champion’s character after a defeat is so strong that his coach prefers this side of him to the celebratory one after a win.

Eugene Bareman Says Israel Adesanya Is Better At Handling Losses Than Anyone Else In MMA

Though City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman would obviously rather that Adesanya wins each and every one of his fights, he does like seeing the man that his fighter is in the difficult moments where he lets his opponent have their moment without stepping in the way.

There was a lot of tension between Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis heading into this fight but any beef was squashed after the two men faced off in Perth.

During a recent appearance on the ‘Who The Fook Are These Guys?’ podcast, Bareman spoke about how great “The Last Stylebender” is after a defeat.

He also referenced how the shock upset loss to Strickland is an exception because they weren’t able to take positives or lessons from that particular setback.

“Yeah he keeps handling it well and you’re right, I love the way he loses. I actually prefer the way he loses than the way he wins. I’m not a big fan of some of the ways he win but I’m definitely a big fan of the way he loses. I think he does it better than anyone in the sport. In a sport that’s proliferated with a bunch of idiots that make up all sorts of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen over the years, especially at that level it’s just crazy, and I think he does it the best but I mean the Strickland loss, he’ll never get over. You just fought badly and it was unexplainable.”

Read also: Dan Hooker’s Coach Feels Unlucky Mateusz Gamrot Let Down By ‘The Machine’: ‘That Should Have Been His Opportunity…’

Continue Reading Israel Adesanya’s Coach Honest About UFC 305 Loss: ‘I Prefer The Way He Loses Than The Way He Wins…’ at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Striking Display
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

When Belal Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards to win the Welterweight crown, “The Bully” revealed some grand aspirations. Muhammad announced his intentions of defending the title often, taking on all comers, and jumping up to 185-pounds to dethrone Dricus Du Plessis.

According to most fight fans, the most logical next contender is Shavkat Rakhmonov. The undefeated Kazakh talent has finished all his opponents, and he’s riding a six-fight win streak opposite quality opposition like Geoff Neal and Stephen Thompson. There are other good options like Ian Garry and Jack Della Maddalena, but Muhammad has spent most of his time online talking trash with Kamaru Usman. The former Welterweight kingpin is a great fighter, but he’s lost three in a row and shouldn’t be considered until back in the win column.

Rakhmonov is frustrated. “Nomad” is actively campaigning for his title shot, and based on his recent social media post, it’s not going very well.

He wrote, “After all the talk about being an active champion, truth is Belal isn’t even ready to defend his title this year.”

At the moment, the Welterweight title picture is very up in the air. It could simply be that UFC already has plans for their December pay-per-view (PPV) and needs Muhammad to defend in January, regardless of whether the planned opponent is Usman or Rakhmonov.

Insomnia

This throwback photo of future Polish champions Jan Blachowicz and Joanna Jedrzejczyk is my favorite social media thing I’ve seen in weeks.

Pannie Kianzad lost three in a row to solid competition, but she was still ranked in the Bantamweight Top 15. A somewhat surprising cut?

Take a look at the full undercard for UFC Vegas 98:

Who should Israel Adesanya fight in his return? I think a reasonable step back — like a Brendan Allen or so — would make the most sense.

Demetrious Johnson takes us inside the world of Street Beefs:

Stop sending Ben Askren your Laura Sanko fan mail!

Luke Rockhold and Craig Jones are enjoying that post-competition glow.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I always enjoy when a fighter too lanky for overhands still has a good overhand.

A close range onslaught produces a nasty cut and stoppage victory.

Ducked directly into a full power knee …

Random Land

After and before Korean BBQ.

Midnight Music: Rock, 1973

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has always had a somewhat rocky relationship with certain parts of the MMA fanbase.

“Funkmaster” has an awkward striking style and a strong grappling game which means that his fights aren’t always the most exciting to watch, even if he’s incredibly effective at what he does.

Aside from this, another point that saw some of the UFC’s audience take a dislike to Sterling was what happened at UFC 259, where he challenged Petr Yan for the 135-pound title.

Yan landed an illegal knee to Sterling’s head whilst he was a downed opponent in the fourth round which the challenger couldn’t recover from.

As a result, Yan was disqualified, meaning that the title changed hands in disappointing fashion.

Eric Nicksick Recalls How Aljamain Sterling Had No Memory Of UFC 259 On His Journey Home

Despite the knee strike being a clear and obvious foul on Yan’s side, some fans didn’t like the way Sterling won the title as a result, and questioned whether he actually couldn’t continue or if he was looking for a way out because the fight wasn’t going his way.

This was cleared up during a recent episode of the Verse Us podcast where Sterling joined Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick, who was in his corner on that night.

Nicksick provided more details about how that decision was made to not continue and what the aftermath of that knee landing was like.

He recalled how, after nominating himself to stay with Sterling and take him back home from the hospital, it was clear that he had no memory of what had just happened.

“I said to Ray [Longo], I’ll go to the hospital with him and I had to sit in the f****** parking lot. You didn’t get to sit in the waiting room, this is COVID era so I get a text from him or whoever was kind of there, one of the nurses or UFC personnel, ‘Hey, he’s ready, you can come around the back, you can pick him up.’

“We get in the car and what, 30-minute ride home and this is why I know, from a personal level, that this dude wasn’t faking. 30-minutes of him asking round after round after round. I say this because guys that I know that have been knocked out or have had head trauma have asked the same questions. ‘What happened in round one? What happened in round two?’ Going through everything in their head.”

Sterling returns at UFC 307 where he faces Movsar Evloev in search of his second consecutive win at featherweight.

Read also: Aljamain Sterling Accuses Sean O’Malley Of Being Given The ‘Jake Paul Route’ By The UFC: “Stacking The Deck Against His Opponent”

Continue Reading Aljamain Sterling’s Cornerman Clarifies Any Doubt Over Faking Petr Yan Disqualification & Title Win at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dana White has given up on trying to figure out Merab Dvalishvili.

The No. 1 contender at 135 pounds has developed a reputation for posting viral videos on social media, but his latest efforts have caused White some major frustration. Dvalishvili recently revealed a nasty cut over his left eye, which happened just weeks ahead of his main event bout with bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 on Sept. 14.

White was confounded by Dvalishvili’s decision to share that injury with the public, so one can only imagine how he felt when Dvalishvili subsequently posted a follow-up in which he was seen snipping away at stitches with a large pair of scissors.

“Isn’t he awesome?” White said when asked about the clip following Tuesday’s Contender Series event at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. “I think he’s just f*cking with me now, to be honest with you.”

The extent of Dvalishvili’s injury is unknown, though it’s been cause for concern for the UFC and its fans as cuts have often led to bouts being cancelled in the past or to fighters entering their matchups with a significant handicap given that the cut could presumably be easily reopened. Dvalishvili appears to be confident that the cut is a non-issue ahead of his title challenge.

Since beginning his UFC run with back-to-back losses, Dvalishvili has rattled off 10 consecutive victories. The Georgian standout likely would have fought for a title earlier were it not held by his close friend Aljamain Sterling, who dropped the title to O’Malley at UFC 292 in August 2023.

White trusts that Dvalishvili knows what he’s doing and isn’t jeopardizing his long-awaited championship opportunity, not to mention the headlining bout of an event that White and company are promoting as the “greatest live sporting event of all time.”

“Do what you want,” White said. “You ever see the scissors they take stitches out with? They’re tiny and they have that thing on there so you don’t cut yourself. You can slide them up under the stitches, you don’t cut yourself. This guy had f*cking bush shears that he was using, that you trim your f*cking bushes with, that gardener’s use. Whatever. Good for him.”

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