Adesanya, 29, provides the material for this installment of The Film Room.
There is always some doubt when a kickboxer transitions to MMA, but Adesanya quickly proved he was one of the best strikers on the UFC roster when he decimated Rob Wilkinson on the feet for two rounds before scoring the technical knockout in his promotional debut. His constant feints and understanding of distance are sublime, and his varied attack makes it impossible to know what is coming next. Patience is a virtue in combat sports, and Adesanya’s ability to stay calm in moments of madness and intelligently look for the finish instead of swinging wildly is one of the reasons he is heralded as the one of the best strikers in the sport today.
Adesyana’s whole game relies on setting traps for his opponents and using their tendencies against them. This is only achievable with elite feinting ability and the timing to execute on openings throughout the fight. Using a variety of feints and benefitting from the ability to comfortably fight out of both stances, Adesanya can overwhelm an opponent’s reactions without even throwing a strike. Most people look at feinting as a sort of useless tick for fighters, and in some cases that is true. However, for someone like “The Last Stylebender,” each and every feint has a purpose. Whether he is trying to draw reactions out of his opponents and looking to counter or just feinting to see how they react to set them up later in the bout, each movement has justification.
Against Tavares, Adesanya used a beautiful hip feint into a body kick, along with his usual feints. He moved his hips towards the opponent to get Tavares to react. Every time he moved his hips, Tavares put his hands up to block his head, only to have Adesanya rip a kick to the body, much like Lyoto Machida. This might not look like much, but little tricks like this separate the good from the great.
Although Adesanya’s striking is beautiful to watch, his main source of success comes from footwork. The average MMA fan may not think about footwork often, but it can be an intangible that wins or loses a fight. Since Adesanya does not have the grappling experience that most in the Top 10 possess, he must rely on evasive footwork to defend takedowns and strikes. His incredible timing when striking translates to his ability to read the opponent’s reactions and know when strikes are coming next, allowing him to use his footwork to retreat and avoid oncoming attacks. Defensively, he rarely retreats in a straight line and always takes an angle to avoid getting backed to the cage or hit. His fight with Tavares took place in the smaller cage. Adesanya defended 11 of 12 takedowns and avoided 78 percent of Tavares’ strikes, all while having significantly less room to move. If Adesanya can put on a footwork masterclass in the small cage, just imagine what he can do in the standard Octagon.
Adesanya also frequently uses a boxing shoulder roll to avoid strikes. Since he keeps his hands low to defend takedowns and allow his punches to come at odd angles, the shoulder roll is a perfect defensive tactic for his stance and style. Adesanya has been compared to Silva since joining the UFC, and some of the comparisons are spot on when it comes to defense. Both men rely on footwork and movement for defense rather than blocking, and both liberally use the shoulder roll to avoid oncoming attacks. With their long arms, they are adept at simply extending their lead hand and hiding behind their shoulder while retreating.
Many thought Brunson would be the man to expose Adesanya, but instead, “The Last Stylebender” played with him for most of the first round before seemingly finishing the fight when he wanted. Most of the round was spent against the cage, but the moment they separated, you could almost see the switch flip in Adesanya’s head, and he finished the fight via TKO just seconds later. Again, this is reminiscent of a prime Silva, who often toyed with opponents before finishing the fight once he got bored.
Although Adesanya has established himself as one of the sport’s premier strikers, his takedown defense may be the most impressive aspect of his game thus far. One question that always comes with fighters transitioning from kickboxing or boxing to MMA: How will they perform on the ground? As seen with fighters like Stephen Thompson and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, some strikers only need effective takedown defense to succeed. Adesanya has taken the same approach, as he has used magnificent defensive footwork to deny 34 of the 40 takedowns attempted against him in the UFC. We have yet to see him against an elite grappler, so we do not know how his ground game will hold up, and most of the takedowns coming his way have been quite sloppy with no setup. Gastelum has become a fantastic striker since joining the UFC, but he did enter the sport as a wrestler, so it would not be surprising to see him attempt takedowns early and often.