Anthony Smith doesn’t think Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland will be the most entertaining fight.
Adesanya is set to headline UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia on Sunday afternoon local time and Saturday night in North America. In the lead-up to the fight, Adesanya has vowed he will shut up Strickland and break his jaw if he starts to trash-talk him during the fight.
However, Anthony Smith says he won’t be fooled by Israel Adesanya again and expects it to be a more technical fight. Instead, Smith thinks Adesanya will just stay on the outside and piece Strickland up.
“I’m picking Adesanya, I don’t want to say it will be close but Strickland is going to make it interesting. I don’t see Izzy taking a lot of chances, I just don’t. He has tricked me before into believing that he will go out there and do something way out of his wheelhouse and get into a brawl and he’s not going to do that,” Smith said on Michael Bisping’s podcast. “He’s too smart, he’s too technical. I don’t think he’s going to take many chances because he doesn’t have to. He can pick at Sean Strickland for 25 minutes on the outside and cruise to a decision if he chooses to.”
Bisping expects Adesanya to get a stoppage
After Anthony Smith’s comments, Michael Bisping responded and said he is buying what Adesanya is selling and does think he will get a finish win at UFC 293.
“I do see a finish, I see a finish later on in the fight,” Bisping responded.
On the betting market, Israel Adesanya is -110 to finish the fight, so the oddsmakers think it’s about a 50-50 chance for him to get the stoppage.
Adesanya enters his UFC 293 title defense against Strickland coming off a KO win over Alex Pereira to reclaim his belt. In his UFC career, Adesanya only has five stoppage wins out of 13 wins inside the Octagon.
