NEW YORK – Israel Adesanya disagrees with the referee Marc Goddard’s stoppage in his title loss.
Adesanya lost the UFC middleweight title to Alex Pereira in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 281. Adesanya (23-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC), who was up three rounds to one on all three judges’ scorecards, was stopped by Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) with a standing TKO in the fifth round.
After he was tagged with a big left hook, Adesanya was on wobbly legs and fell back against the fence. Pereira kept the pressure on and kept the shots coming, and though Adesanya never dropped to the canvas, Goddard saw enough to stop the fight.
