Henry Cejudo is not impressed with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) notched his fifth title defense when he outpointed Jared Cannonier in this past Saturday’s UFC 276 main event, but his performance was met with plenty of crowd boos.
“The Last Stylebender” came out to former WWE superstar “The Undertaker’s” theme song, but after a walkout like that, Cejudo expected a better performance from Adesanya.
“It’s crazy when you come out to freaking – to The Undertaker, and you didn’t put on a performance on Saturday night,” Cejudo said on “The Triple C & Schmo Show.” “It was lame, dude. You’ve got to start giving – main events are special, dude. If he’s not performing, UFC, stop pushing this dude. He’s a decision-maker.
“He hypes a lot and he doesn’t deliver. He talks a lot, and he doesn’t deliver. It’s been like that with him for a minute now, and I think if you’re going to call people out and do all this other stuff, finish them. Put a beating on people. Be spectacular. People look forward more to his entrance than his actual fight, and that’s a problem because what you want to be good at is when you fight.”
Adesanya is expected to face Alex Pereira next, who sparked Sean Strickland in Round 1 on the same night. Pereira defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing, one by knockout, which makes their battle one of the more highly anticipated title bouts in Adesanya’s career.
But considering both fighters come from a kickboxing background, Cejudo gives Pereira the edge.
“I think Alex Pereira can really – because both of these dudes are just strikers, semi-good defense – but going to have to go with Pereira because Israel never demonstrates any type of takedowns and things like that,” Cejudo said. “He’s another one-dimensional guy that’s good at what he does, and it’s a shame that these dudes at 185 pounds can’t take the fight where Jan (Blachowicz) has taken him. You take him into deep waters and it’s over.”
Henry Cejudo: UFC should stop pushing Israel Adesanya: ‘He hypes a lot and doesn’t deliver’
