Israel Adesanya has been criticised by UFC rival Sean Strickland for "running" in his latest middleweight title defence.
Adesanya, 33, made the sixth defence of his 185lb belt last month when he outpointed Jared Cannonier at UFC 276. Fans were spotted leaving the T-Mobile Arena before the final round of the fight, with many calling for the UFC to take action because of Adesanya's "boring" title fights.
Cannonier is booked to face Strickland on October 15 as the pair look to get back in the winning column after their recent losses, with Strickland also losing at UFC 276 when he was knocked out by Alex Pereira. Strickland scolded Adesanya for "dancing" around the ring against Cannonier and promised he will not do the same when he fights the 'Killa Gorilla'.
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"I'm excited, man. Jared's a solid guy," Strickland told The Schmo about his upcoming fight. "He's a f***ing hell of a fighter. It's kind of a shame Izzy ran from him and made a really boring fight out of it, but it's not going to be like that when me and him fight. It ain't going to be boring. I ain't going to f**king run around and dance around the ring like f***ing Peter Pan with painted nails. We're going to f***ing fight.
"I know Jared lost to Izzy because f***ing twinkle toes, Peter Pan with his painted nails, his manicures, ran around the cage, fought like a bi***. I ain't going to f***ing do that. Me and Jared, we're going to stand in the middle and we're going to do the f***ing man dance, and someone's going to go to sleep."
Adesanya, who faces Pereira at UFC 281 in November, is close to clearing out all of the top contenders at his weight class and has opened the door over a eventual move up to heavyweight, despite coming up short in his light-heavyweight debut last year. Adesanya's manager Tim Simpson said the champion wants to take care of business at 185lb and then move up in weight.
"I think he has business he wants to attend to at 185lb, he says he wants to fight everybody of his era in that weight class, which he almost has done. He wants to go down as the greatest of all time in that division, and there’s opportunity to stay there and keep fighting. But the door’s open to light-heavyweight, even heavyweight. He’s had success at heavyweight in kickboxing, too," Simpson told MMA Junkie.
