After Israel Adesanya left fans unhappy with his performance at UFC 276 this past weekend, the current middleweight champion has been under criticism from numerous notable figures within the industry. Former two-division champion Henry Cejudo was the latest to blast the champ.
Cejudo slammed the champion, insisting the organization stop promoting the middleweight king, Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya is just several days out from a convincing victory over challenger Jared Cannonier at UFC 276. The scorecards read (49-45, 49-46, 50-45), with Adesanya successfully making his fifth defense of his middleweight strap.
There were mixed emotions between fans, fighters, and analysts on the main event title fight between Adesanya and Cannoneir, with some appreciating the work the champion displayed and others labeling the fight ‘boring’, ‘lackluster’, and ‘dead’.
Israel Adesanya Addresses Critics
At the post-fight press conference, Adesanya addressed the public reaction to the fight:
At the post-fight interviews, he stated: “F**k them. They’ve been here since 3 PM. They’re all drunk. They don’t know what real fighting is or real finesse. The greats, they all get to this point. I’ve seen it when I was just a fan. I’m still a fan.”
On ‘The Triple C & Schmo Show’, Cejudo shared his thoughts about Adesanya and his last fight saying (h/t Sportskeeda):
“It’s crazy when you come out to freaking, to The Undertaker (theme song), and you didn’t put on a performance, man, on Saturday night. It was lame, dude. You gotta start giving, main events are special, dude. If he’s not performing, UFC, stop pushing this dude. He’s a decision-maker.”
Cejudo also stated he thought the only time Adesanya has looked how he talked was his first meeting with Robert Whittaker in 2019, which saw him attain UFC gold for the first time. Cejudo added:
“He hypes a lot, and he doesn’t deliver. He talks a lot, and he doesn’t deliver. It’s been like that with him for a minute now. And I think if you’re gonna call people out and do all this other stuff, finish them. Put a beating on people. Be spectacular. People look forward more to his entrance than his actual fight, and that’s a problem because what you do wanna be good at is when you fight.”
What do you think of Henry Cejudo‘s comments on Israel Adesanya?
After initially sharing some frank thoughts on a lacklustre UFC 276 performance from promotional middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya at last weekend’s T-Mobile Arena event, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic Park front man, Chris Pratt has retracted his comments, criticizing the 185lbs champion. Pratt, who attended UFC 276 during International Fight Week – was pictured […]
