Israel Adesanya recently previewed the upcoming UFC 283 card on his YouTube account, FREESTYLEBENDER.
The No.1-ranked middleweight discussed the first tetralogy fight in UFC history between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno, sharing that it deserves to be a main event bout as he stated:
“Honestly, I will say it’s disrespect because there are two champions… The first fight was the one at the Apex. I feel like sometimes this whole COVID s**t made some fights less memorable than they should be because fans weren’t in an arena… There’s certain fights that change the landscape of the sport. If that was in an arena, that would have maybe changed the landscape.”
Adesanya later blamed the bias against the flyweight division for the disrespect, adding:
“I think it’s disrespect, but not disrespect like, ‘oh, you’re disrespecting them’, but I feel like – I think it’s also prejudice because flyweights, for whatever reason, they’ve always had this kind of prejudice against them where people say, ‘no one wants to see them.'”
While Figueiredo is the current champion and Moreno is the interim champion, the matchup between Glover Teixeira and Jamahal Hill will be the main event instead. Although Teixeira is a former champion, he is not currently the champion while Hill will receive his first title opportunity. As Adesanya suggested, the weight class of the two fighters is the only logical explanation for the tetralogy bout not being the main event.
Watch Israel Adesanya discuss the upcoming co-main event of UFC 283 between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno below (starting at the 10:00 mark)
Israel Adesanya weighs in following Francis Ngannou’s UFC departure
Francis Ngannou is now a mixed martial arts free agent after the former UFC heavyweight champion was unable to reach a new contract with the promotion. Israel Adesanya weighed in on his friend’s decision while sharing photos on Twitter of the two of them alongside Kamaru Usman, stating:
“??? History favors the bold, make sure HIS STORY gets told. As for Us…this will age well, because black don’t crack! ✊?”
While Adesanya’s words may be up for interpretation, he appears to be standing by Ngannou’s decision to leave the promotion. He is seemingly supporting the stand taken by the former heavyweight champion while likely alluding to him and Usman getting their belts back in the coming year.
Adesanya’s next bout is yet to be announced, however, it is assumed that he will face Alex Pereira as he looks to regain the middleweight title. Usman is set to face Leon Edwards in a trilogy bout at UFC 286.
Check out Israel Adesanya’s Twitter post below: