Opening up the main card of UFC 230 this past weekend (Sat. November 3, 2018), a middleweight contender emerged. Israel Adesanya picked up a huge knockout win over Derek Brunson to open up the Madison Square Garden pay-per-view (PPV). Adesanya has proven to be one of the best strikers the UFC has to offer.
His finishing sequence of Brunson Saturday night was a thing of beauty. As it turns out, there might be more to “Style Bender’s” arsenal than we think. Speaking to Luke Thomas on “The MMA Hour” recently, Adesanya revealed that the shots he hit to put Brunson down were only utilizing about “40 percent” of his striking power (via MMA Fighting):
“It’s not about hitting hard and about who can hit,” said Adesanya. “I can hit hard, trust me. Those shots that I landed, I was just going at like 40 percent. The knee that I landed, that was probably like 90 percent. You know how when you accelerate and you almost get to 100 percent? But he kind of closed it with his stupidity and his force.
“He hurt himself. He played himself. I remember he was laughing at my prediction. I said Round 1 and if his chins holds up then Round 2. He said ‘oh my wrestling—’ all that sh*t he’s been saying since my second fight in the UFC. He tweeted my ground game was trash.
“It’s the same sh*t they all say. So I watched his interview and you can see he’s just not even believing anything he’s saying. He’s just saying things like the same old rhetoric, the same old ‘he’s all hype.’ He said ‘hype is over.’
“They say it’s all hype but they don’t realize there’s a hole f*cking train behind it running people over.”
What do you think about Adesanya saying he only hit Brunson with ’40 percent’ of his power?
