Professional MMA fighter & trainer Hollywood Joe Tussing brings you the Fight Review/Recap for the main card fight Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettor i on the UFC Fight Night 29 fight card on April 14, 2018.
The second fight on the UFC Fight Night 29 fight card, Justin Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori went the full three rounds and finished in a split decision for Israel Adesanya. Israel Adesanya is extremely hyped up and I think he is over hyped. In this fight, Vettori was able to expose a bunch of holes in his game, and he demonstrated that Adesanya does not fight well off of his back foot.
In the first round Vettori came out and did a lot of work with pressure, throwing the 1-2-1, and really getting in Adesanya’s face, keeping him from being able to throw the spinning attacks that we have seen in his earlier fights. I thought Vettori won the first round easily, from his pressure alone. Vettori went for a couple of inside trip take downs that he was not able to get.
Round Two:
In the second round Adesanya started getting his rhythm a little more, but Vettori did a very good job pressuring him and keeping Adesanya on his back foot. He did not pressure him as much as in the first round and I would have given the second round to Adesanya. That said, he did not do anything spectacular. He did throw one elbow that didn’t actually land on Vettori, but landed on his glove and then Vettori poked himself in the eye. That seemed to be the most devastating shot by Adesanya in the whole fight. Adesanya also threw a couple of inside leg kicks that landed pretty well and Vettori did a lot of good work with the one-two and really pressured Adesanya. I though Vettori did a lot more damage on the feet. Adesanya only landed a couple leg kicks and body kicks and that was it.
Round Three:
In the third round Vettori was finally able to get the takedown and didn’t do much work on the ground, but he did show that Adesanya is not that great getting back to his feet. Adesanya did get back onto his feet and Vettori dragged him back down to the ground and pushed him up against the fence, where they kind of snuggled a bit, before Adesanya got back on his feet. While Vettori was holding Adesanya against the fence referee Herb Dean started screaming for action immediately to the point where this fight felt like everyone was on Adesanya ‘s side, even Herb Dean. He didn’t really let Vettori work his game plan which was to tie up the striker, grind him out with some ground and pound, and maybe do some work on the cage.
Split Decision:
This fight ended with both guys basically starring at each other. It went to the judges and came up with a split decision of 29-28 for each, and then a 29-28 for Israel Adesanya. I think Adesanya is extremely over hyped when a guy like Vettori can put that much pressure on him, do some damage, even swell his eye up a bit. I really don’t think Adesanya should be compared to fighters like John Jones. I think he is more on the level of guys like Bruce Leroy, but we’ll see what happens in his next fight. I was very impressed by Vettori’s pressure and I think he should have gotten the win but the judges disagreed with me.
Additional Fight Reviews/Recaps from UFC Fight Night 29
Dustin Poirier & Justin Gaethje
Michelle Waterson vs Cortney Casey
