Israel Adesanya holds his upcoming bout with Anderson Silva in high regard.
Adesanya and Silva have verbally agreed to a bout at UFC 234. The event is set to take place in Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 9 (Feb. 10 Australia time). Adesanya claims he was offered a spot as an emergency replacement for the main event middleweight title bout, but he turned it down.
Israel Adesanya Talks Anderson Silva Bout
Adesanya recently appeared on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour.” The rising middleweight explained why fighting Silva means so much to him:
“This means more to me than the f*cking world title. I’m getting choke up right now even thinking about it. Like honestly, this f*cking means the world to me. UFC 90 was the first time I watched this guy fight live. Before that I was watching DVDs of him f*cking smirking dudes. This is like LeBron James getting to face Michael Jordan. So this means more to me than any f*cking shiny belt. Like, I can kill this guy and then I can be like ‘I’ve done what I came here to do. I’m done.’ But, I’m not done. After this, I’ll go on to do other things. Yeah, the belt comes with it. But I’ll carry on the legacy of the other avatars in this game.”
UFC 234 will be headlined by a middleweight title bout between champion Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum. Stick with MMA News for the latest updates on the card.
Do you think Israel Adesanya vs. Anderson Silva was the right fight to book?
