One of the most anticipated fights of the year between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa is almost here and is set to take place this weekend at the Yas Islands in Abu Dhabi in the main event of UFC 253.
Both Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa are coming off of a decision win over Yoel Romero at UFC 248 and UFC 241 respectively. The fight has a lot of hype surrounding it and it is a guaranteed firework for fans alike.
In the co-main event, a mouth-watering light-heavyweight clash between Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz is set to take place for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title. Former champion Jon Jones vacated the title in order to move up a weight class and this has left the title vacant and it’s for the first time in nearly nine years that someone, not names Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier will be crowned as the Light Heavyweight champion.
UFC 253: Adesanya vs Costa Early Prelims
Light heavyweight: Danilo Marques (10-2, 1-0 UFC) defeats Khadis Ibragimov (8-4, 0-4 UFC) vs. by unanimous decision
Heavyweight: Juan Espino (11-1, 2-0 UFC) defeats Jeff Hughes (10-4 1 NC, 1-3 1 NC UFC) by first-round submission
Prelims
Light heavyweight: William Knight (9-1, 1-0 UFC) defeats Aleksa Camur (6-1, 1-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Men’s featherweight: Ludovit Klein (17-2, 1-0 UFC) defeats Shane Young (13-5, 2-2 UFC) via first-round KO
Welterweight: Jake Matthews (17-4, 10-4 UFC) defeats Diego Sanchez (31-13, 19-13 UFC) by unanimous decision
Lightweight: Brad Riddell (8-1, 2-0 UFC) defeats Alex Da Silva (21-2, 1-1 UFC) via unanimous decision
MAIN CARD:
Men’s featherweight: Hakeem Dawodu (11-1-1, 4-1 UFC) defeats Zubaira Tukhugov (19-4-1, 4-1-1 UFC) via split decision.
Women’s bantamweight: Ketlen Vieira (11-1, 5-1 UFC) defeats Sijara Eubanks (7-5, 4-3 UFC) by unanimous decision
Men’s flyweight: Brandon Royval (11-4, 1-0 UFC) DEFEATS Kai Kara-France (21-8, 4-1 UFC) via submission
Light heavyweight: Jan Blachowicz (26-8, 9-5 UFC) defeats Dominick Reyes (12-1, 6-1 UFC) via KO
Middleweight: Israel Adesanya (19-0, 8-0 UFC) knocks out Paulo Costa (13-0, 5-0 UFC) in the second round