Israel Adesanya: “I’ll paint my nails and knock Strickland out with them.”

Reigning UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, who is set to make his title defense against Sean Strickland in two weeks, is doing his best to drum up interest in a bout with the American.

“He’s an idiot and I’m not going to lose to an idiot,” MMA Fighting quoted the Nigerian as saying. “He says he’s not going to lose to a guy who flips on cartoons and paints his nails. Well, I’m going to paint my nails for this fight and knock him out with my painted nails.”

“I’m going to paint my nails and knock him out. That visualization inspires and motivates me – when I knock him out, I’m just going to show my nails to the camera, like, look, these are the matte tips I kicked his ass with. I’m going to do everything in my power to make that visualization a reality.”

The middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland will be the main event of UFC 293, which takes place Sept. 9 in Sydney.

The champion fights the division’s No. 5 forced, as top-ranked Dricus Du Plessis refused to return to the octagon two months after knocking out Robert Whittaker in a challenger’s bout.

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