Rising star Israel Adesanya believes his co-main event fight with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva is the driving reason behind the quick sellout in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The 29-year-old unbeaten kickboxing champion turned professional MMA fighter oozes confidence and a swagger all of his own. His carefree attitude was on display earlier this week while speaking with ESPN.
“I’m just going to do me, and Whittaker, that’s his Christmas gift for the next five years; [it’s] me being on this card with Anderson that made the show sell out in 15 minutes,” Adesanya said.
“This show wouldn’t have sold out the way it did without me and Anderson, so he’s [Whittaker] welcome. He gets the pay-per-view points, he gets the accolades and what not. And yeah, good for him, he knows what’s up, even he knows it. So he can enjoy it for the next 10 years.”
While it is obviously impossible to determine how many tickets were sold in lieu of each fighter, there is no denying both Adesanya and middleweight champion Robert Whittaker were driving forces in the nearly 15,000
As for “Stylebender’s” opponent, well, Adesanya doesn’t seem too concerned with the 43-year-old’s skillset. He continued to claim he knows Anderson better than he knows himself.
“I know him better than he knows himself,” he said. “My team’s been studying him as well and I’ve been studying him for years. So I just know; I feel I can mimic him; some of his fights I can actually mimic the sequences that he’s used to finish the guys off, or to get the guys started before he finishes them off.
“I just know too much, and the difference is the way that I’m playing the game: the mind. My mind is different, I’m Player 1.”
UFC 234 takes place Saturday, February 9, 2019, at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
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