UFC middleweight Israel Adesanya isn’t thrilled by his fifth undisputed title defense at UFC 276. But that doesn’t change the way he feels about his work – or the critics who say he delivered a snoozer against Jared Cannonier.
After five tactical, largely lackluster rounds against Cannonier, Adesanya admitted he had an “off-night” at the T-Mobile Arena. Eugene Bareman was the champ’s coach and said that he could be felt tired by those who were closest to him.
” And still, I still ***** his up,” Adesanya stated. It was during the fight. … He adjusted well. It wasn’t just me versus him. It was him versus my team.”
Just as important as the belt was to Adesanya and the chance to beat his selected opponent Cannonier was a matchup of their coaches, Bareman and Cannonier lead John Crouch. It was, he said, “a battle of the gameplans.”
In the end, the crowd in Las Vegas didn’t like the gameplan – or what happened when it went south. Adesanya was not interested in the naysayers. Just as he batted aside air traffic that competed with his microphone at the press conference, he said people who didn’t like his performance, politely put, weren’t important.
“F*** them,” he said. “They’ve been here since 3 p.m., they’re all drunk, they don’t know what real fighting is. This is what I have to say, all the greats get to this point .”
Adesanya is correct. His predecessors, Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, were once dominant champions. Title defenses became less competitive. They were accused of fighting point fighting or safe fighting more often than they were being competitive.
Adesanya sat in the cheap seats before he took over the UFC and knows this cycle.
“GSP. People would shout at him and I’m like “What the f*** is he watching?” You dumbf****. Same thing. [Muhammad] Ali and Floyd Mayweather. It gets to the point that people want you to fall. No matter how hard you try, they just want to watch you fall. It doesn’t have to be a spectacular show, it just means that they don’t think you’re very good.
But trust, Jared knows I’m a good fighter. Jared knows that I am a good fighter and I gave him the exact same credit .”
Adesanya will have another opportunity to show his greatness. He’ll be attempting to revenge a pair kickboxing losses to Alex Pereira who beat Sean Strickland at the UFC 276 main event.
Strickland might have taken Pereira’s lead with a win. Instead, he wound up on a highlight reel, and Adesanya re-focused on the man that beat him.
“That was the next fight,” Adesanya stated. “I saw his fight. Although it was an excellent fight, Sean Strickland should have been focused on his job. How soon [will I fight him], we’ll find out.
” I am facing a man who beat me in kickboxing and now he is still following me because he knows that I’m the King and wants to take it away. You guys see what happens when my back’s against the wall.”
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