Nigeria’s Israel Adesanya fell short at his attempt to step up to honours in the light heavyweight division as he lost in a unanimous decision to Polish Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 in Las Vegas on Saturday. 

The Nigerian superstar martial artist started off brightly, churning slick movement and landing effective strikes to keep his opponent in check for much of the first three rounds.

Blachowicz, however, rebounded in the final two frames, taking the previously undefeated “stylebender” to the mat and controlling him with ease to retain his title.

All the three judges each scored the fight for Blachowicz with scores of 49-46, 49-45, 49-45. 

‘Now I think I deserve some respect. I’m the true champion right now,’ Blachowicz said after the fight.

The New Zealand based Adesanya who was seeking to add the light-heavyweight belt to his middleweight title, thus suffered his first career fight after 21 tries.

The undisputed middleweight champion said his loss was not totally based on his decision to quickly step up to a higher weight division without adding some pounds.

“The size did play a factor but my technique could’ve been better!” Adesanya told Joe Rogan of BT Sport after the fight. “This is definitely not a one-off, I definitely would be back. Like I said, dare to be great.”