UFC cover curse continues as Israel Adesanya dethroned just days after UFC 5 reveal Electronic ArtsThe notorious UFC cover curse seems to have struck again, with Israel Adesanya losing the UFC Middleweight Championship just days after being unveiled as a UFC 5 cover athlete. Despite entering the UFC 293 main event as a -650 betting favorite on most betting sites, Adesanya was outclassed by Sean Strickland over five rounds, losing by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46). The timing of Adesanya\u2019s loss is particularly eerie, given that he was just unveiled as the cover athlete for UFC 5\u2019s Premium Edition earlier this week. This has reignited discussions around the so-called \u201cEA curse,\u201d a playful narrative suggesting that athletes who grace the covers of EA Sports games face subsequent misfortunes. Strickland, the #5 ranked middleweight, showcased a masterclass in strategy and strength on his way to defeating Adesanya in what is regarded as a massive upset. He defended Adesanya\u2019s attacks for five rounds, consistently pressuring him, and even managed to drop Adesanya in the first round with a heavy punch that had many believing the fight was over. The curse\u2019s history is hard to ignore. After gracing the UFC 4 cover in 2020, Jorge Masvidal suffered a loss to Kamaru Usman. Conor McGregor, the face of UFC 3 in 2018, faced a crushing defeat against Khabib Nurmagomedov. Ronda Rousey, shortly before the release of UFC 2 in 2016, experienced a shocking knockout loss to Holly Holm in what is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in MMA history. And Jon Jones, after appearing on the cover of EA Sports UFC in 2014, encountered legal troubles and was stripped of his title. The recent UFC 5 cover reveal faced criticism, with fans likening it to a \u201cmobile game\u201d knockoff. The cover features featherweight champion Alexander \u201cThe Great\u201d Volkanovski and former flyweight champion Valentina \u201cBullet\u201d Shevchenko. Given the curse\u2019s track record, fans are now anxiously waiting to see how they handle their next fights. While some might brush off the idea of a curse as mere superstition, the series of unfortunate events following EA cover reveals is becoming hard to ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UFC cover curse continues as Israel Adesanya dethroned just days after UFC 5 reveal Electronic ArtsThe notorious UFC cover curse seems to have struck again, with Israel Adesanya losing the UFC Middleweight Championship just days after being unveiled as a UFC 5 cover athlete. Despite entering the UFC 293 main event as a -650 betting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}