Israel Adesanya can say he warned Sean Strickland of Alex Pereira.
The UFC middleweight champion got into an argument with Strickland just days before their respective fights at UFC 276 in Las Vegas on July 2. Adesanya went on to defend his middleweight crown against Jared Cannonier, while Strickland suffered a first-round KO to Pereira.
Adesanya believes Strickland didn’t take Pereira as seriously as he should’ve and thinks that’s one of the reasons why he lost that night.
“He should’ve listened to me,” Adesanya said in an interview on his YouTube channel. “He should’ve listened to me when I told him, ‘Just focus on the guy you have in front of you, not me.’ He was trying to be like that idiot in the back of the class. I hated having to address that idiot. Like, I’m trying to f*cking work and the guy I’m focused on is next to me or down the line and this idiot, this dumbass in the back of the class just disrupting.
“I was like, ‘Yo, it’s not me you need to worry about. Focus on this guy. He thought he had the opportunity, and I’m like, ‘OK, bet.’ If he actually did what he had to do, me and him would be fighting next.”
Adesanya not only thinks Strickland was focused on the wrong man, but also refutes the idea that Strickland was doing well in the bout.
Strickland reacted to his loss that same night and said he thought he was doing well, and it was an easy fight until the KO. Adesanya doesn’t think that’s quite accurate and said he saw Pereira’s KO coming.
“Don’t fight with your ego, he fought with his ego,” Adesanya said. “He said, ‘I thought I was doing pretty well.’ You’re not doing pretty well. … I’ve seen this before, I’ve done this before. You can see it coming. … I was like, ‘change up,’ but Pereira didn’t need a change up. He just threw a left hook, really, really simple. Boom dropped him, right hand, finished him.”
