Whittaker pulls out with injury, Adesanya wins at UFC 234
MELBOURNE, Australia: Robert Wh i t taker provided most of the early drama at UFC 234 in Australia and Israel Adesanya quite a lot at the end.
About eight hours before their scheduled
- pion Whittaker withdrew from his championship defense against Kelvin Gastelum because of a serious abdominal injury and subsequent emergency surgery due to a perforated hernia.
That moved up the highly anticipated No. 1 contender match between rising New Zealand star Adesayna and Brazilian veteran Anderson Silva (34-9) to the main event on the sold-out Rod Laver Arena card. with a kick to his opponent’s right thigh, but Silva fought back with two shots to Adesayna’s
Silva appeared to have won the second round, and chants for the Brazilian went
round. But Adesayna, now 16-0, dominated the third for a unanimous decision, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 as per the judges’ cards.
“This is like, for a kid, if I played basketball against Michael Jordan... this is it for me,” Adesanya said. “Anderson, thank you. You’ve been doing this for a long time my friend, I appreciate you.”
Adesanya: “I pass the baton onto you.”
“I’m very happy, guys. Thank you God, for giving me one more chance to come here and do my best. I love my job,” Silva said at ringside during the presentations.
The Nigerian-born Adesanya, 29, is con-
style that reminds many of the 43-year-old Silva in his prime.
Also elevated on the card was the lightweight bout between American Lando Vannata and Brazilian Marcos Mariano, which Vannata won by submission near the end of
two by no contest, while Mariano fell to 6-5.
UFC president Dana White said the 28-yearold New Zealand-born Whittaker, who has a record of 20-4, became ill Saturday night and complained of pain in his abdomen before being diagnosed at a hospital with a hernia. White said Whittaker could have died if he went into