ANDERSON SILVA’S RETURN to the octagon against Israel Adesanya was promoted to main event status at UFC 234 in Melbourne, Australia, but his comeback did not go to plan as he suffered a unanimous decision defat.
The headline fight at the Rod Laver Arena was cancelled just hours before the card was due to start when middleweight champion Robert Whittaker withdrew from his scheduled title defence against Kevin Gastelum.
Whittaker was suffering from a “severe abdominal injury requiring emergency surgery”, the UFC said.
In its place, Adesanya improved his undefeated record to 16-0 with a 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 victory against Silva.
The 43-year-old Brazilian, who held the middleweight title for seven years, was making his first appearance since serving a one-year ban for failing a doping test — a positive which the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) ruled to have been caused by a contaminated supplement.
Silva also served a one-year doping ban in 2015 – which he blamed on sexual enhancement medication — after failing multiple tests in the run up to his fight against Nick Diaz.
“This is like, for a kid, if I played basketball against Michael Jordan. This is it for me,” Adesanya said after his victory.
I do this shit for real, and I do it against the best. Crazy week. I showed up to work, a lot of people didn’t. It’s out of their hands, you know, sometimes it’s not in their control.
“But, hey, Player One has the controller so I showed up. Anderson, thank you. You’ve been doing this for a long time, my friend. I appreciate you.”
Lando Vannata, Ricky Simon, Montana De La Rosa and Jim Crute were also victorious on the main card.
UFC 234 – Main card results
- Israel Adesanya def. Anderson Silva UD (29-28, 30-27 x 2)
- Lando Vannata def. Marcos Mariano SUB1 (kimura, 4:55)
- Ricky Simon def. Rani Yahya UD (30-27 x 2, 30-25)
- Montana De La Rosa def. Nadia Kassem SUB2 (armbar, 2:37)
- Jim Crute def. Sam Alvey TKO1 (2:49)
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