UFC 248: Israel Adesanya admits frustration led to early mistake against Yoel Romero in title defence

Israel Adesanya beat Yoel Romero to defend his UFC middleweight title. Photo / Getty Images

Israel Adesanya admits he made a mistake in his title defence against Yoel Romero, one that could have cost him.

Romero caught Adesanya with a strong left hand to the eye in the first round of their headline bout at UFC 248 in Las Vegas, one that stung the Kiwi champion.

"He punched me in the face, in the eye," Adesanya explained when asked what happened in the exchange. "I was blinking a lot because I could see two Yoel Romeros.

"He cracked me with a good one, but this is a guy that's supposed to put everyone down. My foot positioning was wrong … and he cracked me with his best shot early on and I ate that. I'm not proud of my chin, but I can take a shot.

"But then later on you see I read that left hand like it was nothing. Whenever it was coming at me I was out of the way. He did crack me, and that was his best punch of the fight, that was it."

Romero, known for his usually aggressive style, spent the vast majority of the bout defending, looking to use his left hand to counter Adesanya's advances. It was a strange approach from Romero, who spent the first two minutes of the fight in a defensive stance and not looking to engage with Adesanya at all.

In the first round, only seven strikes landed in total – four to Romero and three to Adesanya – and despite stinging Adesanya with a left hand, Romero did not follow the shot up.

"He caught me when I made a mistake. I played into his game plan, maybe I got frustrated," Adesanya admitted.

Adesanya looked to engage with a constant string of jabs and leg kicks throughout the fight, while Romero worked in spurts. The Cuban would move forward and throw the odd combination looking to catch Adesanya with something before going back into a defensive stance.

As a result of the defensive nature of the fight, neither athlete landed 50 strikes – with Adesanya out-landing Romero 48-40.

"It was bizarre," Adesanya said of Romero's performance.

"I was ready for this – his wait, wait, wait (style) – but I wasn't ready for him to just stand still and look at me like a crash test dummy.

"This is not the fight I wanted."

Now with a 19-0 professional mixed martial arts record, Adesanya will turn his attention to a bout against unbeaten Brazilian contender Paulo Costa.

Both Adesanya and Costa indicated to media they would like to fight in July.

"I'm looking forward to that fight now more than ever," Adesanya said. "I actually get a guy who's not going to stand there and throw two looks at me. He's actually going to come forward, have pressure and get hit by me a lot.

"(July) sounds good to me."