Israel Adesanya Wants To Beat The Man Everyone Thinks Can Beat Him

A month after successfully claiming the UFC Middleweight Title against Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya has called out his next opponent, in the wake of Paulo Costa’s announcement of injury.

Adesanya is known to be a vocal person and at UFC 244 he opened up to MMA Fighting about who he wants to fight next.

“I want to defend my title again in February or March. Because homeboy [Paulo Costa], the guy I called out next, he’s been put out for a while. He can’t fight for eight months so I want to try and get whoever I can, probably [Yoel] Romero is who I’m asking for, either February or March.”

However, in the UFC’s point of view, Israel believes that it is not the fight they wanted to make, especially because of Romero’s consecutive defeats.

“Nope, that’s not the fight as a matchmaker I’d get next because the guy’s coming off a loss. Not just one, not just two but three of his last four fights have been losses,” Adesanya pointed out.

But he looks far beyond the losses because Adesanya wants to prove that he can handle Romero comfortably.

“That’s not the smart move to make next but as me, as a fighter I want to fight the guy everyone thinks can beat me,” Adesanya continued.

The ‘Last Stylebender’ is eager to prove everybody wrong again as he did last month against Robert Whittaker, at UFC 234.

“Everyone was hyping up the Robert [Whittaker] fight, like how are you going to beat Robert? He went ten rounds with Romero! I was like and the f*** what? At the press conference, I said ‘so the f*** what?’. He’s good but people think he’s this boogieman, maybe it’s just the muscle thing but everybody thinks muscles win fights but not in this era.”

Adesanya was quick to analyse why people think Yoel is worthy of a challenge to his throne and how his antics make it more interesting.

“I think his skill set as a wrestler [makes him dangerous]. Also, he’s got some interesting tactics — stoolgate, never make weight, pulling out — he has his ways. As Eddie Guerrero says ‘if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying’ and he has wisdom for trying.”

Finally, the fighter from City Kickboxing fighter gave out his warning to Yoel Romero and recalls how he manhandled Whittaker in their matchup, which is exactly what he wants to do with the Cuban.

“I said hold my beer, let me show you how it’s done, I took care of Robert and people said Romero couldn’t finish him, how are you going to finish him? I did it in two [rounds]. I did it twice — in the first and the second round.”

Do you think Israel Adesanya will prove the doubters wrong against Yoel Romero?


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