Israel Adesanya is not happy with the schedule he had last year. In a recent interview leading up to his fight against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271, Israel Adesanya has expressed his displeasure with his fights in 2021.
After Jon Jones’ departure from the light heavyweight division, Jan Blachowicz became the 205 lbs champion after beating Dominic Reyes for the vacant championship. Adesanya moved up a weight and challenged Jan for the light-heavyweight championship on March 7th at UFC 259.
However, he was dominated on the ground and fell short of his goal of becoming a double champ. But Israel bounced back with a good victory over Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. He showed improved wrestling defence and dominated the stand-up.
In the interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN, the champ revealed what he felt during the fight. He also listed out the number of times he wants to fight this year.
Israel Adesanya wants to be active
Israel Adesanya was very active during his first year in the UFC. He expressed that fighting at a regular interval keeps him sharp. The Kiwi also revealed that he was not happy with the trajectory of his career in 2021.
Stylebender explained, “I wanna get 3 this year at least.” Talking about 2021, he added, “I’m not happy. Last year was the most lacklustre year of my UFC career I feel. Just two fights. I went up to light heavyweight failed that side mission and then I defended my belt at middleweight. And there was a point in that fight when I got bored. My coach twister was like ‘don’t get bored Izzy, stay in it.'”
The 32-year old has new benchmarks for his career. He elaborated, “I have to move according to me, according to what I wanna do, what I set up to do in this game. I have accomplished a lot. Exceeded a lot of my goals. But I have dotted down new ones that I will accomplish. I’m going back to my younger self.”
FIIIIIIIIGHT WEEEEEEK!!!!! @stylebender vs @robwhittakermma is LIVE SATURDAY on @ESPNPlus PPV! #UFC271 pic.twitter.com/pAEXFHgjFa
— danawhite (@danawhite) February 7, 2022
He also expressed the wish to do laps around the whole division. But Izzy is not looking past Robert Whittaker. The fight between them will take place in 4 days’ time. Fans can expect a very different fight from the last time around as Adesanya expects Whittaker to have the same game plan as that of Jan Blachowicz.
