‘I Was Right There in His Face’- UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya Slams Notion That He Was ‘Coasting’ Against Jared Cannonier
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya spoke out via his YouTube channel and provided some clarity on his much-talked-about scrap against Jared Cannonier that went down at UFC 276. ‘The Last Stylebender’ received a lot of flak from the MMA media for his performance, as many believe he was ‘coasting’ and didn’t push the action enough.
The counter for that, as provided by fans of Adesanya, was that Cannonier in turn never led the dance and ‘Izzy’ did enough to win the fight clearly on the scorecards. This debate has been raging on ever since the fight was concluded polarising views have been generated on both sides.
Israel Adesanya pushed back against the notion that he ‘coasted’ and said that it was stupid for him to overcommit against a powerful hitter like ‘The Killa Gorilla’ who was just waiting for a counter.
“There was no bit in that fight where I took my foot off the gas in the sense I was coasting. I wasn’t coasting.”
“I was like, I’m gonna keep touching him, and I’m gonna keep touching him until he falls. I didn’t want to overcommit because if I overcommit, I knew he was going to counter me, or I would leave myself in a vulnerable position, and that’s stupid. But I was right there in his face.”
He also talked about the things that he implemented in the fight that ultimately aided in limiting Adesanya’s weapons. Per ‘Izzy’, the claim that he ‘ran away’ in the fight was laughable and he made sure to let the entire base know his position on the matter.
“If you want to say I ran away in this fight, I don’t know how you’re gonna say that. I was right there in his face hitting him, striking with him. So, I don’t know. People might try and say, ‘Oh, he’s this and that.’ Footwork was one of the main things. I took away 60 percent of his shots, his strikes. The other was just hand control, distance management and just basics. My jab, things like that.” [h/t bjpenn.com]
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