Israel Adesanya believes Derek Brunson was in desperation mode at UFC 230.
In the main card opener of UFC 230, Adesanya clashed with Brunson. Despite numerous takedown attempts, Brunson was continuously denied success. Adesanya ended up catching Brunson with a knee that marked the beginning of the end. “The Last Stylebender” obliterated his opponent on the feet for the first-round finish.
Israel Adesanya Says He Had Derek Brunson Panicking
There was a point in the fight where Brunson grabbed a hold of Adesanya’s shorts and lost position because of it. Adesanya responded by flipping the bird at Brunson. Speaking to reporters during his media scrum, Adesanya said he believes Brunson did everything he could to survive (via MMAFighting.com):
“If you, on your first exchange, when you come at me and the first thing he does is grab my shorts blatantly, and I kind of side-looked, or felt like, ‘Did Herb see that? Alright,’ and the second time was so blatant, I was like, ‘What the f*ck, dude? Come on.’ If he’s doing that so early on, you know he wasn’t ready. You know he wasn’t prepared. He was just clutching at straws, if you will. He’s just like, ‘Oh, sh*t.’ He’s panicking from the get-go, I already knew. Any time he saw me outside of the cameras and stuff, he started talking sh*t. I was like, dude, just save your energy. I’ll see you tomorrow. But he was already panicking, so I knew he was going to come at me.”
Adesanya has made his case for a title opportunity. With Jacare Souza beating Chris Weidman, “The Last Stylebender” may get his wish. Souza has never received a UFC title shot, but he’s already lost to champion Robert Whittaker and number one contender Kelvin Gastelum.
Do you think Israel Adesanya will be a breakout star in the UFC?
