Booker T, a five-time WCW Champion and a former World Heavyweight Champion in WWE, thinks Israel Adesanya has the gift of gab similar to Muhammad Ali.
Adesanya is the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion. He is fresh off a successful title defense against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 inside the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. This was a rematch and while Adesanya wasn’t as dominant this go-around, he did pull off the unanimous decision win.
Float Like A Butterfly …
Booker T was in attendance for UFC 271. In fact, he was actually a member of the media on that night. During an appearance on MMAFighting‘s The MMA Hour, the WWE legend told Ariel Helwani that he sees a lot of Muhammad Ali in Israel Adesanya.
“For Izzy to actually pay respect to Booker T, it just lets me know how I made him feel as a young kid growing up, hopefully one day to inspire just like I did. You could tell he was a fan. You could tell he loves, not just what I did for him, but the game of professional wrestling, entertainment. He’s a performer. He’s the Muhammad Ali of the MMA world. I tell you, he’s a generational talent, and they only come along few and far between.”
Booker T went on to give his assessment of the rematch between “Izzy” and Whittaker.
“It was a close fight. I can’t sit here and say it wasn’t a close fight. It was very strategic. You could tell Whittaker went and changed a whole lot in his game, and that he didn’t want to go out the same way he did in the first fight. You could tell Israel was very, very cautious as far as his approach. It was just a technical fight, but that’s the way fights are. Every fight is not going to be that spectacular knockout. Every fight is not going to be that fight where we look back in history and say, ‘Man, it was great!’ The fighter is all about walking out with a W.”
Adesanya seemingly already has his next opponent lined up. Jared Cannonier stopped Derek Brunson on the same card Adesanya just competed in. After the fight, he demanded the next middleweight title shot and UFC President Dana White told reporters that Cannonier will get his wish.
