UFC: Derek Brunson sees victory in an Israel Adesanya rematch – ‘just take my time, be patient, no rush’
- No 7-ranked middleweight thinks champ’s loss to light heavyweight king Jan Blachowicz provides a blueprint
- ‘It’s funny, it was kinda how I saw the fight against me going in my head … I get this guy to the ground, he’s not getting up,’ Brunson adds
Derek Brunson returns to action this weekend in the UFC Vegas 22 main event against Kevin Holland as he looks to press his claims for a top-five contender and a title shot in 2021.
And he feels if he does run into UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya again, things will go very differently.
“The Last Stylebender” (20-1) knocked American Brunson (21-7) out with nine seconds left in the first round at UFC 230 in 2018, on his meteoric rise to the 185-pound throne. But the Nigerian-Kiwi tasted his first defeat in MMA this month after falling short against Jan Blachowicz in his bid to become a double champ.
“It’s funny, it’s [the Blachowicz loss] kinda how I saw the fight against me going in my head, how I saw it over and over,” Brunson told SCMP MMA. “Man, I get this guy to the ground, he’s not getting up.
“But it’s like I rush, rush, rush into it and it’s weird. Jan didn’t. He didn’t get no takedowns in the first, second or third rounds – he started in that fourth and the fifth. That’s the thing, you’ve gotta take your time out here.
“Guys are getting so good at defending takedowns, throwing knees, uppercuts – you saw it in the [Derrick] Lewis fight [against Curtis Blaydes]. Curtis was winning the whole fight, and he rushed in for a takedown and boom, he got uppercutted. Only thing fans will remember is he got uppercutted. They don’t care about he first round or how the fight was going.”