THE STYLEBENDER HAS ARRIVED AT UFC 230

(I can’t post the full KO clip but you can definitely find it on Twitter and Instagram, just search the right keywords)

We’ve been asking the question since February, when we received our first look at how former professional kickboxer Israel Adesanya would fare in the octagon…

“Is Stylebender the real deal?”

It was obvious that his kickboxing was no joke, with a professional record of 75-5-1, and that it’d translate to professional mixed martial arts – because he came into the UFC with a record of 11-0 – but at the game’s absolute highest level…could he go with the best of them?

Tonight, at Madison Square Garden, we finally received a pretty definitive answer to that question, when Israel Adesanya met Derek Brunson, the #6 Ranked Middleweight in the world, and knocked him the fuck out.

At the start of the fight, Brunson played to Adesanya’s weakness: grappling. He was successful in doing so for a while, pretty much completely neutralizing the Stylebender’s signature offense by tying him up and swarming him at every turn – even if it meant grabbed the fence a few times, sparking a middle finger from Israel – but the second Stylebender got an inch to breathe, it was all over. He had the touch of death like never before, where it seemed every punch or strike he threw put Brunson on his ass, further into a concussed state, and after Herb Dean stepped in and called this one off…

…he danced ALLLLLLL over his opponent’s dead body. How humiliating must that be, to get a glimpse at through your hazy, concussed eyes, if you’re Derek Brunson? Sheesh.

Brunson wound up going 0-7 on takedown attempts, as well, showing just how much Adesanya has improved in a year.

Middleweights…I think yous are all in trouble now.