Israel Adesanya already sees Derek Brunson as another notch on his win column, which currently sits at an impressive 14-0.
The bout pitting the middleweight rivals against each other was announced at UFC 25thanniversary press conference on Friday. Following their various interactions over the weekend, including a chance meeting in their hotel and an intense face off at the press conference, “The Last Stylebender” feels as though Brunson is “already scared” of the challenge that awaits him in Madison Square Garden.
“I think the guy is already scared, man,” Adesanya told Luke Thomas on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.
“You see how he carried himself on the stage? It’s funny, he didn’t have that same energy about 30 minutes ago at the hotel. He’s a certain kind of guy because the people around him want him to flex and sell the fight. He’s coming out with all this stuff like, ‘Oh you’re too skinny bro’, and I’m like, ‘Bro, this isn’t CrossFit’.
“I’m not even skinny, he’s just fat. Did you see his body up on that stage? He had a little soufflé around his waist. I’m already in his head, and he’s in his feelings like Drake.”
Although it looked as though Brunson tried to a pick fight with Adesanya via Twitter ahead of the bout announcement, the Nigerian striking specialist claims that the UFC told him to call for the showdown.
“He didn’t call me out, the UFC made him call me out. He wouldn’t even dare say my name. I feel like if he turned down a fight with me it would make him look bad. They forced him to take that fight because he wouldn’t dare call me out by himself. He was trying to make it out like, ‘Sign the contract’, but I was like, ‘Bro, I signed the contract two days ago, what are you on about?’ This ain’t the WWE and I keep up that image, but I think he’s in over his head on this one. He’s never been in a fight like this. I know he’s fought Anderson Silva, but he hasn’t been in a fight with anyone like me, so I think it’s a new territory for him.”
When asked about what threats he needs to watch out for when it comes to Brunson, Adesanya highlighted “bum rushing” and “falling on takedowns” as his future opponent’s best combat assets.
“Him falling into a takedown, that’s about it. Bum rushing and falling into a takedown. You’ve seen my last fight and my first fight in the UFC. You’ve seen my last fight, how many times did that guy try to take me down? They weren’t bad grapplers,” he said.
“Brunson, I don’t know what his credentials are as a wrestler or whether he’s an All-American division one or whatever, but regardless, my takedown defense is not something he wants to mess with. I don’t see anything else that he brings to the table.
“Come on, look at this guy’s resume, look at his highlights. This guy got knocked out by ‘Jacare’ twice. ‘Jacare’ has got some of the stiffest stand-up there is; even though he hits hard he’s just stiff in the way that he moves. How the f*ck is Brunson going to hit me with some overhand right coming all the way from six o’clock?”
Adesanya was every bit as critical about Brunson’s social media game as he was when it came to the American’s fighting style.
“He doesn’t even make those videos. He’s not even that smart. His videos were sh*t. He put up pictures of me that I already posted online of me looking good. There’s no comedic timing, there’s no flow to his sh*t, it’s all clunky, just like his style. His style of fighting is all over the place, it’s sh*tty.”
He insisted that he is putting no pressure on himself to finish Brunson, but he doesn’t think the UFC’s sixth-ranked middleweight will make it to the end of the first round.
“I want to punish him, but I don’t think he’s going to last a round because of the way he fights. Even at that press conference, if not for Dana White, he would’ve ran straight into what ever I wanted. I had already established my distance with hand on his chest and he’s already running forward with his chin up. That already tells me how he’s going to approach this fight.”
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