UFC commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping believes the current 185-pound champ, Israel Adesanya, is about to switch things up. Adesanya has come under fire of late for stringing together three relatively unexciting consecutive title defenses, but Bisping predicted on his YouTube channel that Adesanya will have to be aggressive in his scheduled UFC 281 headliner against Alex Pereira.
“One of the negative things about Israel Adesanya that people do say is that lately, he hasn’t fought to win. He’s having more of a defensive style. Listen, you see this a lot with UFC champions, because the stakes are so high, the pressure is immense, the lifestyle you can live when you’re defending the belt that many times, generating that kind of cash, world famous wherever you go, endorsement deals all over the place.
Bisping: Adesanya Won’t Be Boring Against Pereira
To lose, you don’t just lose the fight, you lose all of that that goes with it: the lifestyle, the stardom, the fame, the deals, the money. It really is life changing. So there does come an element of pressure with that.
But coming into this one, Israel is going to fight. Israel is going to fight, because Pereira, I don’t believe, will be scared of him. He’s going to go forward, because he went out there and he beat Izzy, in kickboxing, twice.
That reinforces his mind that he is the better striker, that he is the better fighter, and now he’s going to think, ‘With four-ounce gloves on, I’m going to have an even greater chance of knocking out Israel Adesanya.’
And the way he did that in kickboxing was he went forward, he was aggressive, and we’ve seen that with Pereira. He goes forward.” Bisping continued, pointing out the psychological aspect to the fight.
“He has the knockout power advantage, in my opinion, [and] he also has the psychological advantage, but we’ve got to remember, Izzy has been in the UFC for a long time, defending the belt forever, and if you don’t think Izzy has [gotten] better, has improved, then you’d be a fool.
And if Pereira thinks it’s the same Izzy showing up to the fight night in Madison Square Garden, UFC 281, then Pereira would be a fool as well.
There’s levels to the game. That is an old thing that people always say, but it’s true, and when you get to the UFC, you have to level up. When you get to a No. 1 contender fight, you have to go the extra yard.
When you become the god damn champion, every single time you’re fighting, you’re fighting the No. 1 contender, potentially the next best fighter on the planet in your weight division. So you’ve got to take your training camp to the next level… And this will be the seventh time that he’s done that.”
What’s your UFC 281 prediction? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbrE1xafZEA
