Yet to ever rack up a professional submission victory over the course of his career, undisputed middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has laid out plans to potentially pursue a stoppage via that method in this weekend’s championship defense opposite Sean Strickland at UFC 293.
Adesanya, the current and two-time undisputed middleweight champion under the promotion’s banner, is slated to make his return to the Octagon for the second time this year this weekend in a comeback to Sydney, Australia for the promotion.
Standing opposite the City Kickboxing striker is surging middleweight contender, Strickland – who rides a two-fight winning run over both Nassourdine Imavov, and Abusupiyan Magomedov into his first championship foray inside the Octagon.
Israel Adesanya plans submission win over Sean Strickland at UFC 293
Predicting an easy victory against the outspoken Covina native ‘Down Under’ this weekend, Adesnaya has teased his desire to land a submission win before calling time on his illustrious mixed martial arts career. And claims the opportunity to pursue such a stoppage may be presented as soon as Saturday night.
“What do I want in my career? Submission – I definitely want a submission,” Israel Adesanya told TSN reporter, Aaron Bronsteter. “It might be [in] this fight [against Sean Strickland]. “I know he’s going to wrestle. He’d be dumb not to, so I know he’s going to mix it up.”
“He’s doing this whole thing, ‘Oh, man dance, man dance’ – he’s going to crotch sniff, that’s what he’s going to do,” Israel Adesanya explained. “I mean, he’s got smart coaches and they’ll definitely beat it [a wrestling approach] into him. I know they’ve been talking about it, and he’s like, ‘What, crotch sniff? I’m gonna box.’ He’s gonna box with me. The (Alex) Pereira fight I told him, ‘Focus on your job ‘cause he’s gonna knock you out.’ What did he do? He knocked him out, because he wasn’t focused on his job, he was focused on me. But, yeah, he’s gonna crotch sniff, but I get down too. So it’s whatever.”