UFC 271: Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker 2 also featured the UFC debut of Blood Diamond aka Mike Mathetha. Going into this fight there was a lot of hype behind the first Zimbabwean UFC fighter as he was a long-time training partner of the current UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya has spoken very highly of Mike Mathetha in his past interviews. However, the fight ended with a rather shocking outcome as Blood Diamond loses the fight via submission in round 1.
He was up against Jeremiah Wells, who was into his second UFC fight at UFC 271. With a record of 10-2, Wells was certainly a threat to Blood Diamond. Wells is a good wrestler and has legit knockout power in his hands. And he certainly shocked a few fans and put the division on notice with his submission win at UFC 271.
The fight started with a bizarre event as Jeremiah Wells almost injured his ankle while going for a right hand. However, he regained his composure and started working on a takedown against Blood Diamond against the cage.
Diamond showed good takedown defense, something that’s usually from fighters coming from City Kick Boxing. But, he found himself in the ground with Jeremiah Wells on the mount minutes into the first round.
Wells then succeeded to get the rear-naked choke after punishing Blood Diamond with some nasty ground and pound. With this win, Wells has now 2 wins in his UFC career. On the other hand, Blood Diamond has suffered the first loss of his UFC as well as his MMA career.
There are no questions surrounding the elite striking abilities of Blood Diamond. However, with one fight into UFC, his wrestling game has already been exposed. But he is still new to the game with plenty of kickboxing experience. It will be intriguing to see how he bounces back from his loss in the next fight.
