VIDEO! Fighters react sadly to Israel Adesanya’s loss

The UFC fighters sitting in the front row were visibly shocked and very saddened by Israel Adesanya’s TKO loss.

In the main event of UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden, Alex Pereira finished Israel Adesanya in the fifth round to claim the UFC middleweight championship.

Immediately after the fight was stopped, the front row, where all of the guest fighters sit, was filmed, and it wasn’t a happy scene. In fact, it was a depressing scene because everyone looked super disappointed and just plain sad.

Twitter user ‘Out Of Context MMA’ posted the reaction clip.

Welterweight champion Leon Edwards can be seen covering his eyes, letting out a scream, and featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski’s hands can be seen as he fell to his knees. Bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, interim flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou are visibly shaken. Tim Simpson, Adesanya’s manager and vice president of Paradigm Sports, is face down with his head in his hands.

It was a pretty shocking upset, so the sadness is entirely understandable.

The loss to Pereira was Adesanya’s first in the middleweight division, snapping his 12-fight win streak in the division. It was also the New Zealander’s first TKO loss in MMA.

Pereira has now beaten Adesanya three times, twice in kickboxing and now in MMA.