Poland’s Jan Blachowicz retained his light heavyweight title after he beat Israel Adesanya via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-45, 49-45) in the early hours of Sunday at UFC 259.

Blachowicz ended the bout in the ascendancy to tip the scorecards after Nigerian Adesanya appeared to edge the early rounds.

It was a first defeat in the UFC for Adesanya who moved up from middleweight for the bout.

Middleweight champion Adesanya was aiming to become only the fifth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight divisions simultaneously.

But the Nigerian was undone by a poor finish to the bout and falls just short in his quest to join the likes of Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo and Amanda Nunes who remains undefeated after mounting a successful defence of her featherweight title against Megan Anderson.