Following his second career win over former titleholder, Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 last weekend, Israel Adesanya appeared perplexed at the idea of WWE veteran and legend, Booker T’s presence at his post-fight press conference.
Headlining UFC 271 at the Toyota Center, Adesanya successfully lodged his fourth consecutive successful defense of his middleweight crown, scoring a close unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) victory over the former undisputed champion, Whittaker.
Dropping Whittaker with a well-placed and timed counter straight left midway through the opening frame, Adesanya built up a lead in the first, second, and third round according to two judges, who scored the fourth and fifth round in favor of Whittaker – who managed to briefly take Adesanya down on four separate occasions.
Israel Adesanya added Whittaker to a run of title defenses against Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa, and Yoel Romero
Following this unanimous judging win, Adesanya, who fielded a couple of questions from media assembled at his UFC 271 post-fight press conference, before learning of the presence of the aforenoted Booker T – quickly losing his train of thought.
“Yeah – is that Booker T?” Israel Adesanya said. “Five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time UFC f*cking champion! I was like, ‘Is that Booker T, what the f*ck?’. Holy sh*t. Sorry, just being a fan. What the f*ck – ah sh*t, my man. Respect to you, bro.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
Booker T, real name Booker T. Huffman Jr. – is best known for his time with professional wrestling organizations, WCW where he was a five-time world champion, as well as a prolonged stint with the Vince McMahon-led WWE – where he competed and then later turned his hand at commentary.
Scoring another defense of his middleweight title, Adesanya appeared to welcome a June return, potentially against Jared Cannonier, who featured on the main card of UFC 271 – rallying from an opening round knockdown and rear-naked choke attempt, to ground out common-foe, Derek Brunson with piercing elbows.