UFC lightweight Dan Hooker has no patience for those who dare to criticize his City Kickboxing teammate, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. On The MMA Hour, Hooker described those who criticized Adesanya’s lackluster performance at UFC 276 as “dumb”.
Adesanya heavily hyped the bout beforehand, but on the day, his headline performance looked more like point sparring than a UFC title fight. Hooker pointed out that the onus is on the challenger, not the champ, to take risks.
Dan Hooker Dismisses “Dumb” Adesanya Critics
“It’s just dumb. It’s just not how the sport works. You’re the champion, the other guy wants the title, you’re clearly winning the fight, it’s not on you. It’s not on you to push the fight. The other guy wants the title. You’re clearly winning. It’s not time to brawl when you’re clearly winning. If that guy takes risks and now the fight becomes very even, now Israel’s going to have bite down and fight.”
Dan Hooker continued, echoing sentiments made by fellow City Kickboxing fighter, the featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Hooker pointed out that even one mistake can end a title reign and cause serious damage. In particular, he referenced Kamaru Usman’s stunning loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 278, which saw the welterweight champ starched by the challenger in the final round. With that kind of risk on the table – not to mention the serious head trauma fighters risk in every bout – Israel Adesanya chooses to fight smarter, not harder.
“These guys have to make him fight, but to say that he should — look what happened to Usman this weekend! A single mistake in this game and now you’re just turned into a meme in one moment.
He went from the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet to a meme in one moment. That’s how quickly this cruel game can change. It’s the same for Israel. You don’t think if he makes one — why should he? Why should he take the risk? It’s on his opponents to take the risk.
If your biggest criticism as the world champion is that you don’t get hit enough, [laughs], you don’t know how silly that sounds until you lose the title, until you take a silly risk and lose the title. They sound dumb when they say it.”
Israel Adesanya’s next fight will likely be a very different story. He’s set to face his old foe, Alex “Poatan” Pereira, at UFC 281. Pereira defeated Adesanya twice when the two were fighting for GLORY kickboxing, the latter of which was a stunning knockout.
Is Dan Hooker right about “The Last Stylebender”, or should the champ be doing more to make his fights entertaining for the fans? Let us know in the comments.
