Two-time former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was on Saturday, February 1, knocked out just 30 seconds into the second round of his highly anticipated fight against Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Fight Night 250 in Saudi Arabia.

Imavov made good on his pre-fight promise to “bring the war” to Adesanya, delivering a devastating performance as he threw a massive right hand to drop Adesanya to the canvas and followed up with a left uppercut and pounced on him with ground strikes, which saw referee Marc Goddard stop the contest and hand Adesanya second career knockout loss and his third consecutive loss, having previously suffered setbacks against Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis.

The loss was his first in a non-title fight loss, in what was his first non-title fight in about six years.

UFC Fight Night card, results
Nassourdine Imavov def. Israel Adesanya via second-round knockout (punches)

Michael “Venom” Page def. Sharabutdin Magomedov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29

Sergei Pavlovich def. Jairzinho Rozenstruik via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Vinicius Oliveira def. Said Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Fares Ziam def. Mike Davis via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27