Israel Adesanya is apparently feeling the nerves ahead of his middleweight title fight against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271.
Adesanya and Whittaker first fought back at UFC 243 where “The Last Stylebender” won by second-round TKO to claim the middleweight title. He has since defended the belt three times. But this time around, Dan Hooker, a teammate of Adesanya, says the champ is a bit nervous. (h/t Sportskeeda)
“He’s good. He’s definitely in a good place,” Hooker said to LowKick MMA about Adesanya. “From the interactions that I’ve had with him… I guess with the rematch, especially the way that the first fight went, you can kind of – not necessarily underestimate your opponent – but you can take it a little bit lightly because you know you put on such a dominant performance right there. It might be hard to get up for the training but it’s not like that. Like he said to me this morning, he said, ‘You know I’m nervous.’
That’s good, you know. He’s got that nervous energy, which you need.”
Although Adesanya said he is a bit nervous, as Hooker says, it is a good thing. Most fighters get nervous before they walk out as it is a fistfight and anything can happen. But as “The Hangman” says, Adesanya uses his nervous energy in a good way.
Israel Adesanya is coming off a decision win over Marvin Vettori back at UFC 263 to defend his belt for the third time. It also marked his return to the win column after losing to Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight belt at UFC 259, which was his first pro-MMA loss.
As for Hooker, he’s set to drop back down to featherweight to take on Arnold Allen at UFC London on March 19.
What do you make of Israel Adesanya telling Dan Hooker he’s nervous ahead of Robert Whittaker rematch?
