Israel Adesanya confronts referee who stopped UFC Saudi Arabia fight: ‘I’m f*cking sorry, man’

Attending UFC 312 over the weekend, Israel Adesanya appears to have put his beef with veteran British referee, Marc Goddard behind him — after the latter apologized for a scrutinized stoppage in his UFC Saudi Arabia return last week in Riyadh.

Adesanya, a former two-time undisputed middleweight champion, returned to action earlier this month in the Middle East, taking on the streaking contender, Nassourdine Imavov.

And suffering his third consecutive defeat, City Kickboxing staple, Israel Adesanya was stopped with a massive second round knockout loss to the Russian-French challenger — succumbing to his second consecutive stoppage loss in a main event setting.

However, off the back of the defeat, much-debate was raised regarding the nature of the stoppage once more — with Goddard also receiving flak for stopping Adesanya from continuing in his title defense against former two-weight best, Alex Pereira back in 2022 in the fifth round at Madison Square Garden.

Israel Adesanya confronts Marc Goddard over UFC Saudi Arabia fight stoppage

And bumping into the veteran official in Sydney over the course of the weekend, Adesanya dismissed Goddard’s apology attempt, maintaining that the stoppage was “good”, in fact.

“Hey, I’ll tell you one thing, the one in New York I was like ‘ehh’ but this [stoppage at UFC Saudi Arabia] was good, you know why? I wasn’t there,” Israel Adesanya told Marc Goddard. “I was moving but it was all instincts.”

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Adesanya despite his third straight loss, with the Nigerian-Kiwi striker receiving confirmation of his impending induction into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer, as part of the Fight Wing for his stunning back-and-forth fight against Kelvin Gastelum back in 2019.

Prevailing in a close unanimous decision win, Adesanya turned in a stunning performance against The Ultimate Fighter winner, to snatch the interim middleweight title.