LAS VEGAS – Israel Adesanya remembers a few years back at Madison Square Garden. He knew before anyone else did.
That night, Adesanya (22-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) met the man who eventually turned out to be his UFC 276 opponent, Jared Cannonier (15-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC). The two were cordial and Adesanya promised they’d meet eventually. He’d seen Cannonier fight before. There were a couple of special traits that shined through.
“Spirit, if I’m being honest. His fighting spirit and his essence,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. “I recognize that because I’m an empath myself. I can kind of feel the energy from a great man and a great fighter. Yeah, I like to take care of these guys. I call out all the greats. I saw that early on in him before all you guys did. I try to boost him up. He fell short once and then came back and proved his worth as the next contender.”
As Adesanya referenced, Cannonier was on the verge of a title fight in 2020. However, a unanimous decision loss in which he injured his arm against Robert Whittaker sent him back a few steps. Since, consecutive wins over Kelvin Gastelum and Derek Brunson have him right back in the mix.
“I feel like he poses a danger the same way all my past opponents pose dangerous threats,” Adesanya said. “They keep talking about, ‘Power, power, power.’ Have you ever heard that before when someone fights me? ‘Oh, power this. Power that.’ It’s the same old song. F*cking get it off repeat. Pick a new song. I’m just glad I have a new blood to fight in this fight. Yeah, it’s time to eat.”
Record-stacking usually has a negative connotation, but in this case, Adesanya is giving new meaning to the phrase. He’s picking and choosing his opponents to build his resume – with nothing but straight killers.
“Not in the sh*t sense, but I’ve always picked my opponents,” Adesanya said. “Yeah, people pick and choose their opponents on the way up to the UFC because they want to pad their records. When I’m in the UFC, I pick and choose my opponents because I want to pad my records with legit contenders. So I pick and chose them a while back. I’m glad they didn’t fumble this time and he made it to the dance, so here we are. Let’s go.”
