Normally when a fighter has an opportunity to avenge a loss, they seem a lot more emotional prior to the fight. However, that’s something Israel Adesanya is looking to avoid.
While speaking about his fight against Alex Pereira on The MMA Hour, Adesanya referenced the UFC lightweight title bout between then-champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor at UFC 229 as to how emotions running high could be a detriment to one’s performance:
“The Khabib-Conor fight. I felt like Conor [McGregor] used the wrong strategy. If he had attacked that a little bit differently – because he was the closest to beating Khabib [Nurmagomedov] as well. There was a lot of energy wasted leading up to the fight but that’s just my observation, I’m not in their shoes. [Wasting energy going after Pereira] It’s stupid. What’s the point? He’s using that all right now.”
‘The Last Stylebender’ added that he doesn’t dwell on the past and that the only thing that bothered him about his losses to Pereira was that he didn’t stay true to his style:
“I guess I’m not like everyone else. It never annoyed me. It bothered me the fact that I didn’t stay true to my style. And then I was running out of money. I had seven more fights on my contract, I’m like, ‘Just give me three, I need to f****** eat.'”
Adesanya is promising that the main event against Pereira will be a “horror movie.” It will be interesting to see what transpires during the main event at UFC 281. Both fighters have already fought twice before, so they are very familiar with each other’s tendencies.
Check out the full interview below:
Could Israel Adesanya be WWE bound in the future?
Israel Adesanya has mentioned that he’d love to either do a one-off appearance in WWE or just attend a show as a fan because he hasn’t been to an event before.
WWE management personnel Stephanie McMahon, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, and Nick Khan were in attendance at UFC 276 when ‘The Last Stylebender’ made his Undertaker-style entrance for his match against Jared Cannonier. He showcased his charisma and willingness to add an extra layer of storytelling in his bout through his entrance.
Adesanya told Ariel Helwani that watching WWE was family time for his family and mentioned that he would take his parents with him as well if he attended an event because of what it meant to him.