At a surface level, sporting history is defined by iconic moments . Digging deeper into a sport will reveal the ins and outs of how things came to be, but the singular moments and results are what people remember. Last year, Israel Adesanya etched his name into the tapestry of the UFC when he knocked Alex Pereira out in the second round of their clash for the UFC middleweight championship.
It was another big win in a hall-of-fame calibre career; Adesanya revelling in finally beating the heavy-hitting Brazilian in his fourth attempt across mixed martial arts and kickboxing, and doing so in emphatic fashion. But his celebration of firing three arrows into his fallen foe after the fact pushed the moment into the territory of the iconic. It was also the moment in which reigning UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, 30, believes Adesanya’s fire for MMA dimmed.
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