FIRST ADE MISSION
Dogged Israel rises to summit again
ISRAEL ADESANYA has proven he is the top dog in the middleweight division once again.
Few appeared to give him much chance of getting his hand raised at UFC 287 against his bogeyman Alex Pereira, a rival he had lost to twice in kickboxing and again last November when his 185lb crown was taken. Pre-fight Adesanya had taken to wearing a dog collar similar to the one Jet Li sports in action movie ‘Unleashed,’ with ‘The Last Stylebender’ always happy to bring colour and theatrics to the often black and white world of MMA.
And fittingly with the show in Miami, it took cajones for Adesanya to put his back against the cage in round two and welcome on a fighter who had knocked him out twice to rain in repeated blows.
Having played “possum”, the Kiwi, again prophetically, unleashed two right hands from hell to first stun and then leave ‘Poatan’ poleaxed on the canvas to regain his title.
Adesanya, who is now 24-2 as a pro, said: “They say nothing feels as good as your first time, but I am telling you, the second time is even sweeter.
“They (his critics) forgot what I had done in this game and for this game.
“Just because you have been down and out by the same person doesn’t mean that I am going to stay down. You get back up again and try until you get it done. “This fight just shows the human spirit, the power of the human mind. I wanted to show my fighting spirit in every sense of the word and I think I did that.
“Honestly, believe in yourself. No matter how many times you get knocked down, always get back up and fight for what you want.
“Doubt is human but I just know myself. I was able to shut that out (doubt) real quick and most people aren’t able to do that.
“I have been through too much in my life to let this kind of thing weigh me down. So when that negative creeps in I tell it to, ‘Shut the f*** up’ and keep on going.”
Hulking Brazilian Pereira is expected to go up to light-heavyweight now, while Adesanya is happy to move on to new challenges himself, having settled the score with his old rival.
He added: “We closed it, we are done with this s***. I don’t want to fight the same guy three times in a row.
“I am 33 and I could probably go on for as long as I want to, but I have less than 20 fights left in this game. I just want to fight new faces and take new heads.”