Israel Adesanya was the discuss of UFC 290 and he didn’t need to throw a single punch within the course of.
The reigning middleweight champion was available at T-Cell Enviornment to soak up the motion final Saturday evening. Adesanya particularly had his consideration locked on a extremely anticipated 185-pound conflict between former titleholder Robert Whittaker and rising contender Dricus Du Plessis. Followers had been left completely surprised when Du Plessis, a three-to-one underdog, scored a second-round TKO in opposition to ‘The Reaper’ and solidified himself as the subsequent man in line to problem Adesanya.
Because the South African celebrated his win, ‘Stillknocks’ was joined contained in the Octagon by Adesanya who proceeded to make a sequence of racially-charged remarks that felt like they got here from a web page proper out of the Conor McGregor handbook for promoting fights.
Chael Sonnen Sees Israel Adesanya Competing with Conor McGregor to Turn into the UFC’s Largest Draw
Whereas most followers had been fast to sentence Israel Adesanya’s controversial feedback, former three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen believes ‘Stylebender’ stole the present and instructed that the champ is gunning to turn out to be the promotion’s high draw by way of a really McGregor-esque angle change.
“There have been issues that occurred on Saturday on tv earlier than that I’ve by no means seen,” Sonnen mentioned of Adesanya throughout an look on The MMA Hour. “I assumed Adesanya was the star of the present, I don’t suppose that program is similar along with his look and he didn’t throw a single punch. I feel it’s fascinating.
“There’s one thing else occurring right here, by the way in which…there’s a unique sport being performed right here by Izzy. You realize who must be watching this? It’s Conor McGregor. Izzy’s coming for his spot, Izzy’s coming for high draw within the sport and he’s not that distant. He actually made that program for me.”
With issues already extremely intense between Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis, we are able to solely think about the type of antics that ‘Stylebender’ will pull out of his bag over the subsequent few months.
As for when the 2 males will really sq. off, current rumors counsel that Adesanya is planning to return at UFC 293 in September when the promotion returns to Australia. If that’s the case, it solely provides Du Plessis eight weeks to get well and put together for the largest battle of his profession to this point.