Israel Adesanya dismisses those who say that Yair Rodriguez’s knockout win at UFC Denver was luck.
This past Saturday night (Nov. 10), UFC Denver took place inside the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. In the main event, Rodriguez went one-on-one with Chan Sung Jung. With just one second left to go in a thrilling contest, “El Pantera” landed an upwards elbow that knocked the “Korean Zombie” out cold. Rodriguez was on his way to a decision loss before pulling off the stunning finish.
Israel Adesanya Says There’s No Luck Involved
“The Last Stylebender” knows a thing or two about the stand-up game. The undefeated mixed martial arts middleweight has quite the kickboxing resume. He told Fightful that Rodriguez’s knockout win wasn’t luck (via BJPenn.com):
“That was crazy. And I’m seeing a lot of people saying that that was lucky, that was a lucky knockout… like, really smart people who, that are like legends of the game. Literally, the example that they gave was, ‘well, he threw it twice beforehand. He threw it twice beforehand and failed. So this time he got it,’ and I’m saying it’s instinct, it’s timing and knowing where the head is gonna be not where it is, where it’s gonna be. And his argument was, ‘ah, well he threw it twice beforehand and failed. Was that instinct and timing as well?’ My counter-argument is, hey, look… even against Brad Tavares in the beginning of the first round, I was throwing my jab, throwing my jab, throwing my jab. I wasn’t landing it. And then eventually, from the second round, I bloodied up his face with my jab. And I started connecting my two. That’s not luck, that’s not luck. That is timing, that is trial and error, that is readjustment and resetting.”
Do you agree with Israel Adesanya, or do you think some luck played a role in the finish?
