Reigning UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has already spent two rounds inside the Octagon against recent headliner, Paulo Costa as well as eight separate rounds with Marvin Vettori in one-sided victories. And has concluded that both middleweight contenders are less than desirable off the back of their acclaimed UFC Vegas 41 headliner last year.
Adesanya, a staple of City Kickboxing, is targeted to make his Octagon return on February 12. at UFC 271 in his middleweight title rematch against former undisputed kingpin, Robert Whittaker — off the back of a second career decision victory over the aforenoted, Vettori in June of this year at UFC 262.
Taking main event status at UFC Vegas 41 last weekend despite a turbulent fight week which witnessed several alterations to the originally agreed upon weight limit, Costa met with Kings MMA trainee, Vettori in an eventual light heavyweight showdown.
Headlining the 14-fight card at the UFC Apex facility, Costa and Vettori went the allotted 25-minute distance in their light heavyweight matchup, with Vettori taking home a unanimous decision (48-46, 48-46, 48-46) victory over the Brazilian — who was deducted a point in the second round due to an unintentional eye poke.
Israel Adesanya concludes that both Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori are sh*t off the back of UFC Vegas 41
Sharing his thoughts on the light heavyweight main event between his past title rivals, Adesanya pretended to fall asleep at one stage during the main event bout while viewing — before remarking, “I told you they’re both sh*t” in reference to Costa and Vettori.
“[Costa] did right,” Israel Adesanya said. “Inside leg kicks, I wish he did that more, I wish he stayed with the inside leg kicks because that was working. He tried to hip feint at one point but it was like, this close. It’s like, bro, this what ‘Twist’ (coach Tristam Apikotoa) says, people try to copy what we do but they don’t understand the levels or the uses of what we’re doing. They just think, ‘That looks pretty. Everyone’s using that.’ They try to copy it, but it’s not the same.” (H/T MMA Fighting)
Prior to June’s second career win over Vettori, Adesanya lodged the second successful title defense of his middleweight reign with an eye-catching high kick and strikes knockout win over the above mentioned Belo Horizonte native, Costa at UFC 253 in September of last year on ‘Fight Island’.