Israel Adesanya: Sean Strickland ‘Pretends to be Crazy’ but still ‘Dangerous’

Israel Adesanya: Sean Strickland ‘Pretends to be Crazy’ but still ‘Dangerous’

Israel Adesanya is judging Sean Strickland completely off his first impression.

Adesanya is set to defend his middleweight title against Strickland in the main event of UFC 293 this weekend. All the action goes down from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. Recently, “The Last Stylebender” was on UFC Hall Of Famer Daniel Cormier’s program, “DC & RC” to preview the matchup.

Adesanya was asked about initially being slated to face off against Dricus Du Plessis, who was unable to accept a fight against him due to an injury. The 185-pound king admitted he was initially disappointed that the matchup fell through, however, is happy with Strickland being the next man up.

“I was a little bit disappointed that the Dricus fight fell through,” Adesanya admitted. “But it wasn’t for long. I’m happy to get Sean. I begged the UFC to give Sean this fight. I actually bought him his f*cking passport. The guy finally gets to travel out of the country. And, yeah, he gets to see the nice side of the world.

“Places like Australia, Sydney – I’m making lives blossom. I’m changing lives out here. And I’m excited to showcase my talents with my teammates in my neck of the woods against Sean Strickland. This is gonna be – this is one of them ones man. And I’m excited for it. I’m excited to – because everyone expects me to win this fight. I know what people are saying.

“Everyone is already counting him out and stuff. But not me. I know a man with everything to gain and nothing to lose is a dangerous man. So I take him very dangerously, very seriously. But, yeah. You know how I do.”

Strickland is quite the challenge for anyone in the middleweight division – both inside and outside the Octagon. Coming in with a two-fight win streak, Strickland has proven to be quite the striker in his own right. However, Strickland is also a firecracker on the microphone, and has not been shy about letting some trash-talk fly in the build up. Of course, this is nothing new to Adesanya, who welcomes the barbs.

“Strickland is putting on and act”

Despite this, Adesanya believes Strickland is putting on an act when he talks trash. His biggest reason for believing this being the interaction he had with Strickland at the UFC 276 press conference last year.

“I’m ready to fight. That’s what it is. The thing is, you only have one chance to make a first impression, right? I put the receipts out there backstage before that press conference. I smacked him on the ass. Not even trying to be a dick. I was just like, ‘Ah, there’s Sean – boop.’ And he looks at me and goes ‘Ha ha ha, hey man, don’t do me like you did that boy [Paulo] Costa.’ That’s literally what he said.

“And when he got on stage he was like ‘Man I’ll come down there right now.’ And I was like, what the f*ck – who the f*ck is this n****? And we went backstage. Silence. He just walked away. Performing. He’s acting. So then I realized, that’s his first impression – he tried to do it again. I was like, bro, you don’t intimidate me. You had one chance. I know Sean just pretends to be crazy but I’m sure he has his own demons to deal with. But that’s for him and his therapist. As for me, he already blew that first chance to intimidate me when I smacked him on the a** like my b*tch.”