Israel Adesanya has expressed his distaste towards his UFC 230 opponent Derek Brunson.
Israel Adesanya has bad-blood with UFC 230 opponent Derek Brunson. The two have been going back and forth over social media and in interviews lately. And, for his part, Adesanya wants to make it clear that there will be no love lost after the fight.
In his first three UFC fights, Adesanya (14-0) has earned two performance bonuses, showing off his impressive striking abilities inside the Octagon. His last outing was a five-round decision win over Brad Tavares, a fight that many thought was too much of a step-up in competition for “The Last Stylebender.”
While Adesanya and Brunson have only recently started jawing at one another in public, the New Zealander says his negative feelings toward his opponent stretch back a lot further. Speaking to Bloody Elbow, Adesanya described an interaction with Brunson three years ago that started the beef between the two men.
“In Auckland, it’s Kiwi country, there’s not really many black people. So there’s a unwritten etiquette amongst black people that, when you see each other, you kind of give this nod of acknowledgement. I saw him, and I just nodded at him like what’s up, and he iced me.
“At that moment, I knew I was [eventually] gonna fight this guy. He’s a sh-t c-nt. Even back then in 2015, he knew who I was. It shows all these motherfuckers already know me, but they’re too scared to say my name. He still hasn’t said my name. But, like Muhammad Ali did, I’m gonna make him say my name come November 3rd.”
Prior to their fight being announced, Adesanya put out a video on social media mocking Brunson. The very same day, the 29-year-old fired back at Adesanya with a video of his own. The whole exchange has Adesanya questioning Brunson’s confidence in himself, dubbing the Jackson-Wink fighter ‘Mr. Me-Too.’
“Anything I do he’s ‘Mr. Me-Too.’ I put out a meme? ‘Yeah, me too.’ I insult him at the bar? ‘Yeah, me too.’ He’s just trying to copy me. I already make him do what I want to when I want to. I can make him dance and swing that sloppy overhand right when I want to. He’s one of those guys that I’m not going to feel bad about if he’s seriously hurt after the fight, let’s just put it that way.”
When the ‘One’ steps inside the Octagon, his fights rarely last long. Brunson has only been outside of the first round in one of his last nine UFC fights win or lose. It’s a guns blazing style that has Adesanya unsure his opponent will last more than 5 minutes against him.
“With his style and his chin, I don’t know if he can hold up past round one. I want it to go to two for one reason, and that’s to see his face [on the stool]. I want him to look across gasping, trying to get some fresh air in his lungs, and I want him to know he’s fucked. I want him to have that feeling “There’s nothing I have left to give”, and then I finish him there.”
After his win over Tavares in July, and at the UFC’s 25th Anniversary Press Conference in Los Angeles, Adesanya addressed his people of Nigeria in his native tongue, Yoruba. What many fans didn’t realize was that the speech went viral in his birth nation not long afterward.
“For me, I had to address my people. Because I always assumed there was only 60-million Nigerians, but my dad said there was 180-million and counting. That’s a lot of people, but very few know what I’m doing. So I had to let them know I’m out here, I’m really working. I addressed them in my native tongue, which is Yoruba, and I went viral after that in Nigeria on social media, that kind of blew up.”
UFC 230 takes place on November 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. The card is set to feature a run of middleweight bouts including Jacare Souza vs. David Branch, Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman, and Derek Brunson vs. Israel Adesanya. A top lightweight contender’s fight between Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz has also been penciled in for the event.