Israel Adesanya has a finish on his mind.
“The Last Stylebender” returns to action with hopes of earning a sixth-career Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title defense at UFC 293 on Sept. 9, 2023. Standing in the 34-year-old Adesanya’s way in Sydney, Australia will be the always-outspoken Sean Strickland, who gets his first crack at gold.
The pair of combatants crossed paths last year as peers at UFC 276, facing different opponents. Now, they’ll face each other under the featured spotlight and the champion expects to make the American pay for his comments one year ago.
“He’s an idiot,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. “I’m not going to lose to an idiot. He says he’s not going to lose to a guy that jerks off to cartoons or paints his nails. Well, I’m going to paint my nails for that fight and I’m going to knock him out with my painted nails.”
Adesanya and Strickland both went through ups and downs since sharing a card in July 2022. While Adesanya lost and regained his divisional crown, Strickland battled fellow top contenders and took some short-notice opportunities to ultimately wind up as the next man in line.
Potential verbal exchanges between the two have been an anticipated highlight for fans, but Adesanya doesn’t find it genuine. Just as a human, there isn’t much to like from Adesanya’s perspective.
“I don’t like the way he conducts himself,” Adesanya said. “Even his sparring footage will pop up in my feed sometimes and I’m just like what the f—k? Who does that? He’s a gym hero. He’s just an idiot and he’s not the kind of person I associate myself with and also he’s fugazi.
“The way he is normally backstage is not the same way when the crowd’s there,” he continued. “When the crowd’s there, he puts on the clown persona and tries to entertain people, which they love and it’s cool, but he’s not the same. I even put a little receipt, just one of them, on a clip I did [running into him] backstage — if you want to have this energy at the press conference, you could have had this energy backstage when I smacked you on the ass. He’s a fake guy.”