Israel Adesanya continues to make headlines, following his win over Anderson Silva, but not only because of what went down that night.
The vaunted kickboxer took on the legendary Silva in the headliner of UFC 234, and he proceeded to outscore the former middleweight champ for the decision win. Understandably, stories about Adesanya’s performance has been in the news, and there’s been coverage regarding what could be next for “The Last Style Bender”.
While the outspoken fighter has made interesting comments regarding those subjects, during a follow-up interview on “The MMA Hour“, Adesanya demonstrated again why he’s such a compelling figure. When asked to respond to Chris Weidman’s recent assertion that he’s a “tad overrated”, Adesanya remained relatively calm, and countered the same could be said about the former champ.
But, when Adesanya was asked to respond to Paulo Costa’s claim that he wouldn’t last two rounds with the massive middleweight, “The Last Style Bender” let fly. Here is some of what he had to say (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“Now, what’s his name, little juice monkey, Paula,” Adesanya said. “Paula. My b**ch. What did he say again? He said something about I wouldn’t last two rounds with him. See he, Silva, that fight with me and him was just physical chess. Was the highest level of striking. It was just, if you know about footwork, intricacies of footwork, it was beautiful to watch. For a guy like Paula, he’s a walking punching bag, walking punching bag, juiced up, blown up and throws body shots and heavy, heavy, heavy. Bring that ass over here.”
“Uriah Hall was just jabbing him up,” Adesanya said. “How the f*ck are you going to hit me with those little T-Rex arms. If I’m behind those jabs, the things that I follow up will be much, much different, so, yeah. A guy like that he should just focus on his fight he’s got next Yoel Romero and yeah, let them talk.”
Now, sure, trash talking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. So the comments above might make no difference to those folks. But we all know in this day-and-age, being able to sling verbal trash, can go a long, long way in terms of creating a superstar. Especially when that ability is coupled with an aggressive, entertaining approach to fighting. Further, if you’ve followed Adesanya since his UFC arrival, then you know that the highlight reel striker isn’t shy on the mic, and this is a reminder of that fact.
This aside, it remains to be seen if Adesanya and Costa will battle in the cage. But when you consider neither man is 30, chances are it’s going to happen sooner or later.