Israel Adesanya Defends UFC 248 Performance Against Yoel Romero

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that many fans were disappointed by the fight for the middleweight championship between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero at UFC 248 last weekend. ‘The Last Stylebender’ successfully defended his belt via unanimous decision win, but the fight lacked action. Especially compared to the epic co-main event between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Adesanya and Romero have both blamed each other for the uneventful main event. Speaking on The Luke Thomas Show, the UFC middleweight champion said that he is cool with criticism, but reiterated the fact that he doesn’t believe the blame lies with him.

“I’m cool with you guys because you guys give me a fair shake. You have to ask hard questions, you have to be objective, but I appreciate that you give me a fair shake. You know me, if this was my fault I’d be the first one to own up to it. I’d be so embarrassed. I’d be the one saying ‘f***, I let my team down, I let people down.’“

And even though the crowd was booing throughout the fight, the champion told Luke Thomas that he didn’t let that affect him during the fight, adding that he would never let that happen.

“Like for me, I didn’t take the stupid risk that the crowd wanted me to take. You know why? Because behind me were four other men and behind them were a whole gang of other people who put everything into me. If I just deviated from the game plan and decided to oblige for what the crowd wanted or what the fans wanted, then I’m letting those four men down. All their hard work they’ve put into me over the last three months I’m letting all that s*** go to waste. For what? Because some grongos in the crowd? No.

“They told me beforehand they need 25 minutes of focus, complete and absolute focus to beat this guy. It’s not just about me. If it was a street fight, maybe I could get dumb enough to do that but nah, I’ve got Andre, Eugene, Twist, and Mike, and a gang of other people that put everything into me for me to be able to just like throw it all away and throw all their hard work away.”

Going into the fight, a lot was made that this would be Romero’s last chance at winning a title in the UFC, despite the fact he has said he intends to fight for another ten years. If this was ‘The Soldier Of God’s’ last chance at the title, Adesanya said he only has himself to blame.

“You know if it was my fault, I’d be the first one to own up and tell you that was a s*** fight. I’m objective in that way. I know that wasn’t on me that was on [Romero] and it’s his last chance he’s ever going to try and get gold, and he knows in his mind, he never went after it because he has no gas tank, he has no faith in himself. So he’s going to be the one to have to sleep at night with that thought and live with that for the rest of his life.”

Who do you blame for the lack of action in the UFC 248 main event, Israel Adesanya, Yoel Romero or both men?


See also:


Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Leave comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.