Israel Adesanya believes he’s the world’s “Best MMA Fighter.”
The reigning middleweight champion, who was stopped by longtime kickboxing rival Alex Pereira last fall in New York, was able to avenge his loss to “Poatan” atop the UFC 287 pay-per-view (PPV) card earlier this month in Miami and reclaim his 185-pound strap.
Adesanya believes his bonus-winning performance was good enough to bag Comeback of the Year, Knockout of the Year, and Fighter of the Year when the ESPN “ESPY” awards return to Dolby Theatre this July in Los Angeles, hosted by star cager Steph Curry.
The ESPYs only recognize “Best MMA Fighter” and the 2022 nod went to former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. Other UFC fighters to claim the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award include Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier.
Twitter fans were not impressed by Adesanya’s self-nomination.
“Mind boggling how arrogant you are. Completely takes away from your accomplishments.”
“The cringebender at it again.”
“No sorry that belongs to Rocky Edwards.”
“Does anyone else not see how cringe Adesanya is acting? He wins 1 fight out of 4 and thinks he’s Ali now?”
“You won once this year LOL.”
“Tryna type like Conor I see.”
“Gilbert Burns is definitely fighter of the year. No contest there.”
The 2023 nominations for “Best MMA Fighter” (a separate category from “Best Boxer”) are expected to be released in the next couple of weeks. It might be hard to make a case against welterweight champion Leon Edwards, not just for the upcoming ESPYs, but in all three categories that Adesanya named.
We’ll see what the voters think in July.