Israel Adesanya knocked out by Joe Pyfer at UFC Fight Night in Seattle

Former two-time champion loses his 4th consecutive bout aft being stopped by Pyfer successful the 2nd round.

Joe Pyfer sent erstwhile Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion ‌Israel Adesanya backmost to the drafting committee successful Saturday’s UFC Fight Night headliner successful ⁠Seattle, stopping Adesanya ⁠at 4:18 of the 2nd circular to headdress the night.

Before the method knockout (TKO) finish, some fighters exchanged their champion punches successful a stand-up conflict until a Pyfer (16-3 MMA) takedown signalled the opening ⁠of the end.

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“I conscionable person this mentality wherever I don’t care; I’m going to hunt and destroy,” Pyfer said, pursuing the stoppage, securing the decorativeness successful apical control.

Adesanya (24-6 MMA), warring retired of New Zealand, has not won a ⁠bout since regaining middleweight golden successful April 2023 astatine UFC 287, and confirmed helium has nary plans to retire.

“I’m conscionable going to support going and going and going,” Adesanya said.

Pyfer, left, delivers a right-hand punch to Adesanya [Steven Bisig/Imagn Images via Reuters]

Grasso dominates Barber successful rematch

A rematch 5 years successful the making commenced astatine flyweight arsenic erstwhile champion Alexa Grasso made abbreviated enactment of Maycee Barber with a TKO stoppage astatine 2:42 of the ‌opening round. The Mexican utilized a near hook to down Barber earlier jumping connected apical of her instantly arsenic the referee stepped in.

The 2 archetypal met successful February 2021, with Grasso earning a decision. Grasso (17-5-1 MMA) snapped a two-fight losing skid, whereas Barber (15-3 MMA) had not mislaid since the archetypal gathering with Grasso, having won her erstwhile 7 fights.

In his last MMA fight, welterweight Michael Chiesa (20-7 MMA) had a hometown send-off arsenic helium submitted Niko Price (16-11 MMA) with a first-round rear-naked choke. Chiesa needed conscionable 63 seconds ⁠to enactment a bow connected his UFC career, 1 that spanned a decade-plus ⁠and included winning the 15th play of The Ultimate Fighter successful June 2012.

Chiesa ended his UFC vocation astatine 15-7, portion Price, who has been successful the promotion for implicit a decennary himself, present sits astatine 8-11, with 2 nary contests successful the Octagon and has ⁠dropped 4 consecutive fights.

The finishes were a taxable connected the night, arsenic featherweight Lerryan Douglas (14-5 MMA) of Brazil needed 3:33 of the opening circular to present ⁠a devastating TKO against Julian Erosa (31-13 MMA). Douglas has present won his ⁠last six successful a enactment portion Erosa continues to conflict astatine 9-9 successful the UFC.

At middleweight, Yousri Belgaroui of the Netherlands scored a third-round TKO stoppage against Mansur Abdul-Malik by landing a perfectly timed genu to extremity the combat successful a back-and-forth battle. Belgaroui (10-3 MMA) has ‌won 5 consecutive and remains undefeated successful the UFC. Conversely, it was Abdul-Malik’s (9-1-1 MMA) archetypal nonrecreational loss, arsenic helium had won 7 of his 11 outings by KO/TKO.

The main paper got nether mode successful emphatic manner successful the ‌opener, ‌with lightweight Terrance McKinney needing conscionable 24 seconds to dispatch Canadian Kyle Nelson with a bid of punches pursuing a caput kick. McKinney (18-8 MMA) has won 3 of his past four, portion Nelson (17-7-1 MMA) has mislaid 2 of his past three.