Israel Adesanya is out to prove himself on his next middleweight title-defence, following a lackluster performance against Yoel Romero in what fans dubbed as the ‘most boring title fight’ in UFC history.
Last March, Adesanya took on the Cuban powerhouse Yoel Romero in the main event of UFC 248 for his first official title retention attempt since unifying the middleweight titles.
What was expected as an epic battle turned out to be a dull affair as the middleweight pair failed to deliver intense actions in 25 minutes, much to the dismay of MMA fans who witnessed a fight for the ages in the co-main event strawweight title bout featuring Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
When the dust settled, Adesanya had his hand raised after winning the fight by way of unanimous decision to retain his 185-pound strap and remain unbeaten in eight fights.
Adesanya beats Romero to retain middleweight titlehttps://t.co/0BbZ6sGNsz pic.twitter.com/soe73yb8G6
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) March 9, 2020
Pay The Price
For his Octagon return, Adesanya has made it clear he wants the undefeated Costa to be his challenger and vowed to make him pay for “all the sh*t he said leading up to this fight.”
“This fight is about me. This next fight is about me, it’s not really about Costa or anyone else. It’s about me proving myself,” he told MMA Fighting in a recent interview.
“After that last fight, and dealing with what I had to deal with a statue, I’m looking to actually to go in there and have fun this time.”
“This is picture perfect. That’s why I love it. The way he looks, this juiced up monkey, evil Drago looking motherf*cker.”
“There’s a skinny boy coming in there to whoop his ass, and when he whoops his ass, the sh*t I’m going to do to him afterwards. Oh my god.”
Adesanya vs. Costa on Fight Island?
Who you got?#UFC #SlickDiazArmy #OctagonJones pic.twitter.com/twBcuH6z0v
— Octagon Jones (@octagonjones) May 14, 2020
Looking Forward
With a five-fight winning streak on his resume, Costa will be a tough test for Adesanya and the middleweight champ said he is excited to go up against a pure orthodox fighter like the Brazilian.
“He’s going to be a guy that’s going to press forward but he’s going to feel me from the get go,” Adesanya continued.
“He’s going to feel me like no one else in the UFC has felt me yet. I think the only guy that maybe pressed me a little bit other than Kelvin [Gastelum] was the Italian [Marvin Vettori]. They’re both juiced monkeys anyway.”
“But I look forward to this test. I know he’s a way better version than that and he’s not a southpaw. He’s perfect. He’s orthodox. I’m kind of getting used to fighting southpaws these days.”
“It’s just something I do so I’m looking forward to fighting a pure orthodox fighter that just does the sh*t I’ve seen a f*cking million times.”
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa)