- Israel Adesanya defended his uneventful performance at UFC 276
- Adesanya called out Alex Pereira for his next fight
This past Saturday, UFC Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya took on Jared Cannonier in the headlining bout of UFC 276. Adesanya cruised his way past the challenger to a dominant victory but only on the scorecards. Two judges gave every round to Adesanya while the third judge still had him ahead by three rounds.
Israel Adesanya defends “off-night” performance at UFC 276
During the post-fight press conference, ‘Stylebender’ would concede that he had an “off-night”. He went on to defend his lackluster performance and claim that Cannonier understands how good of a fighter he is.
“And still, I still f*cked him up. It was in the fight, maybe when I couldn’t find my power shots, my kicks. … He was adjusting well. It wasn’t just me versus him. It was him versus my team.”
Adesanya compared his rise to other greats in the sport like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva.
“GSP, people would boo him, and I’m like, ‘What the f*ck are you guys watching? You dumb f*ck. [Muhammad] Ali, Floyd Mayweather, same thing. You get to this point where, like, you’re so great, people just want to see you fall”
It appears that Adesanya was not a fan of the crowd booing him. He criticized the audience for not understanding “real fighting.”
“They just want to see you fall, no matter what. If it’s not like a show-out, spectacular performance, then it’s like, ah, he’s not even that good.
“But trust, Jared knows I’m a good fighter. He knows I’m a great fighter, and I gave him the same credit as well.”
“F*ck them. They’ve been here since 3 p.m., they’re all drunk, they don’t know what real fighting is. I’ve said this, the greats, they all get to this point.”
Adesanya called out Alex Pereira
At the post-fight octagon interview, Adesanya wasted no time in setting up the highly awaited match with Alex Pereira. Following his knockout win over Sean Strickland just a fight before his former foe, ‘Poatan’ came out to sit cageside and witness his likely next opponent’s latest bout.
Adesanya made a reference to the Disney animated family musical Frozen, and called out Pereira next.
“We know who’s next, Poatan. Trust me, the first time — I told you, it was an error on my part, spamming right hands and that was in kickboxing. It’s easy to knockout the homeboy … what’s the hillbilly’s name? Because he was parrying the jabs.
“But like I said at the press conference, next time I put you on skates. You’re gonna get frozen like Elsa.”
Alex Pereira is the only man to have knocked out Israel Adesanya, a feat he achieved in a kickboxing match. He is expected to matchup with Izzy for his next title fight.
