UFC middleweight Israel Adesanya has given high praise to Raul Rosas Jr. by comparing him to Khamzat Chimaev.
The young prospect moved to 7-0 in his professional career after making the perfect UFC debut against Jay Perrin this past weekend.
The 18-year-old set the record as the youngest fighter to compete in the octagon and lived up to the hype by submitting his opponent in the first-round with a rear-naked choke.
Born in Mexico, Raul Rosas Jr. started making a name for himself when he appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series back in September. With fans already impressed that the then-17-year-old was 6-0 at the time, his unanimous decision victory on the show was enough for the UFC brass to offer him a professional contract.
Reacting to UFC 282 on his YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya praised the 18-year-old for his performance, comparing his grappling ability to that of welterweight star Khamzat Chimaev:
“He’s like a mini Khamzat, the way he’s fighting at the moment. He’s reminding me of Khamzat. Wow. What a fight. Yeah, he’s in the money, haha! Give him the money.”
‘El Nino Problema’s dream debut was also made sweeter by the fact that Dana White announced that every fighter who got a finish had earned themselves a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.
Catch Adesanya’s full UFC 282 reaction here:
Darren Till weighs in on Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira fighting for a fourth time
Darren Till has warned Israel Adesanya to be careful in accepting an immediate rematch fight versus Alex Pereira.
‘Poatan’ shocked the world at UFC 281 when he stopped Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title. ‘The Last Stylebender’ was up on the judges’ scorecards heading into the fifth round, but was eventually caught and rocked by Pereira before referee Marc Goddard waved the fight off.
In their personal head-to-head, Pereira is now 3-0 against Adesanya, winning two fights whilst they were kickboxers and now boasting one victory in MMA.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, Darren Till explained that there is no way to mentally recover from losing to the same fighter four times:
“Is a fourth fight worth it? Yeah I know you have to because Izzy was the champ for a long time and he was dominant, but Alex has beaten him three times. They’re both strikers… I know I’ve lost a fight here and there but if you lose a fourth fight to the same person, I don’t know. I’d love to speak to Izzy about it.”
Catch the full interview here: