A week and a half after a surprise loss in his title fight against Sean Strickland, former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who refused to speak to the media after UFC 293 in Sydney, has found the strength to speak publicly about the incident.
“It was like a bad dream,” Adesanya said in a video posted on his Youtube channel. “One of those bad dreams that isn’t even a nightmare. A nightmare scares you and you wake up. And here I was trying to punch a guy and my hands looked like noodles. Feeling it and watching it from the outside are different things, but I talked to my trainer Eugene Bayrman and he had a similar feeling. The fight was surprisingly fast. I didn’t even immediately realize it was the last round. ‘Is this the last round? Shit, I need to do something.’ It was like a bad dream.”
The Nigerian also paid tribute to the American who dominated him for most of the fight, winning by unanimous decision 49-46 three times.
“He wouldn’t let me get into my rhythm. I couldn’t get into my rhythm because of his pressing. He was in front of me all the time, and as soon as I tried to catch him doing that, the trainer would warn him. They had a great fight plan and I couldn’t adjust as I went along. That was his night. I made another man’s dream come true.”
In doing so, Adesanya avoided answering the question of whether he was going to demand an immediate rematch with the new division champion.
“We’ll see. The belt has never mattered to me. How many times have I said it’s just a fashion accessory? I already have plenty of belts, so now I’m just going to do it for fun, just to have fun.”
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32679-israel-adesanya-narushil-molchanie-posle-porazheniya-ot-shona-striklenda.html?rand=19907
