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MMA Fighting’s 2019 Fight of the Year: Israel Adesanya vs. Kelvin Gastelum

1. Technique can take you very far in the UFC. Eventually, though, you’re going to have to rely on heart to get you through a tough spot.

When both fighters have to reject their central nervous system’s warnings, allowing them to push forward where others would stop, you get a great fight. When that happens under a magnifying glass on the sport’s biggest stage, you get a classic.

That’s a fitting term for Israel Adesanya vs. Kelvin Gastelum, an interim middleweight title fight set up by an injury to then-champ Robert Whittaker.