Alexander Volkanovski is standing up for his friend and teammate Israel Adesanya.
At UFC 276, Adesanya lost a stalemate to Jared Cannonier. He retained his title as middleweight and drew the fury of those who had hoped for the show-stopping performance Adesanya promised. The clear but uninspiring win was the third such performance for Adesanya, and as such, “The Last Stylebender” drew criticism for his overly cautious approach. Volkanovski finds it absurd.
“Of course it is [unfair]. You will see it happen all the time. Every time you have tough fights,” Volkanovski said recently on The MMA Hour. “The thing is, people need to understand when someone only has a puncher’s chance, and that is all they’re looking for. Let’s face it, men. Why does a champion have to take all the risks? Why does he have to come forward when he knows someone is waiting for a big shot? If things don’t go their way, which I am not, I believe the person or challenger should make it happen. I don’t think it’s up to the champ to make something happen.”
Adesanya is in agreement with his partner. In the immediate aftermath of the performance, the middleweight champion said he had an off night, however Adesanya later changed his tune, saying it wasn’t his best performance but that he’s nonetheless pleased with how he managed the fight, noting that a number all-time great champions — such as Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva — faced similar criticisms during their reigns. Volkanovski agrees, saying people will not ask “how” but rather, “how many”.
“Everyone knows that they need to try and get in on Izzy,” Volkanovski said. “Sitting back and just letting Izzy piece you up on the outside, I believe that’s totally on the challenger. Let’s put it another way. If he did a little more, the fight would have been completely different. Then everyone would be talking about how amazing a knockout [it was].. People quickly forget that.
“I’m not having a shot at everyone. People will remember the number of defenses they had at the end. You think that they will be talking about the [against Cannonier]? defense he used? No, they’re going to quickly forget and he’s going to be glad he didn’t take any stupid, unnecessary risks to please a couple of people. Although I am standing up for my son, I believe that this is fair. That’s the way it should be. This is what .”
will sometimes happen.
Volkanovski thinks this criticism will soon pass.
Adesanya is next expected to defend his belt against Alex Pereira. This is their third meeting after a couple of previous kickboxing fights, which Pereira won. A championship bout promises to be explosive.
Although the date has not been set yet, Volkanovski feels that his opponent will be vengeful for his kickboxing mistakes and make the opponents forget.
” People will soon forget. Same as [Kamaru] Usman,” Volkanovski said. “People were giving him criticism and now he’s going and knocking people out, and that’s it — now he’s the man, and well-deserved. He should be looked at like this. I think Izzy’s going to go do his thing against Pereira and then everyone’s going to be all over him.”
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