Daniel Cormier sees the similarities between Israel Adesanya’s UFC 248 fight against Yoel Romero to one of Anderson Silva’s scraps.
It played out as no one expected and the crowd was booing throughout the entire fight. But, for Cormier, he says it reminded him of Silva vs. Demian Maia.
“If you watched the fight, you saw the very first minute and a half, Yoel just kinda of stood there with his hands up,” Cormier said on Rich Eisen show (via MMA Fighting). “And he’s so frightening, that he almost froze Izzy without even doing or throwing anything. Honestly, it just kind of stayed that way. It was one of those fights where you kind of were anticipating the explosion, the fireworks, and it just never came. You got 25 minutes of, essentially cat-and-mouse. It was just weird.
“It reminds me of a fight way back in the day, Anderson Silva fought in Saudi Arabia [he actually fought in Abu Dhabu] and it was one of the nights that just did not turn out to be what everyone expected.”
For Cormier, he says Israel Adesanya fought a smart fight and doesn’t put any blame on the champion for his performance.
“I don’t [blame Adesanya for the lackluster fight],” Cormier said. “When you fight Yoel Romero, a guy that has knocked out so many people, a guy that has really fought in that same exact way but finds ways to end fights with one action, you cannot think that Izzy would just go in there and be reckless. I’ve never seen anyone do it. He did what he had to do. This guy’s the champion. He’s a guy that if you’re willing to engage, he’ll give you your type of fight. But Yoel Romero’s not a guy that you want to be out there being reckless with. He’s just too dangerous. The risk is not worth the danger.”
In the end, even though the crowd was booing, Daniel Cormier doesn’t expect this to hurt Israel Adesanya’s stock at all. Instead, he says “The Last Stylebender” will still be a massive star and his next fight against Paulo Costa will be exciting.
“I think that he can be as big a star as you have in the UFC,” Cormier said. “Some guys just have it. Like you said, it just radiates off of him. You just see it. From the moment he walks to the octagon, he officially marked his territory. You saw a young kid who had never done anything, become a champion in like a year. That doesn’t happen very often in the UFC and I think this was just one of those nights. Anderson Silva, it did not really affect his legacy having that fight in Saudi Arabia and I think that’s going to be the case with Izzy. He’s just going to move forward and his next fight is guaranteed to deliver because the guy he’s fighting, Paulo Costa, has never been in a fight like you saw Izzy have last week.”
Do you agree with Daniel Cormier?