Daniel Cormier reveals whether Israel Adesanya's UFC 248 performance will affect his star power
Daniel Cormier gave his take on the UFC 248 main event between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero. The Middleweight title defense was the first of Adesanya's reign and it was expected to be an explosive fight, with Romero's unpredictability and power being a major threat, while Adesanya was supposed to threaten in his own right with his elite-level striking.
However, it turned out to be one of the most underwhelming main events in recent times and it was slammed by everyone. Daniel Cormier appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and spoke about the main event and what went wrong with it (H/T MMAFighting.com):
“If you watched the fight, you saw the very first minute and a half, Yoel just kinda of stood there with his hands up. And he’s so frightening, that he almost froze Izzy without even doing or throwing anything. Honestly, it just kind of stayed that way. It was one of those fights where you kind of were anticipating the explosion, the fireworks, and it just never came. You got 25 minutes of, essentially cat-and-mouse. It was just weird."
Cormier didn't blame Adesanya, stating that he fought like how a Champion would against a man as dangerous as Romero. He compared the situation to Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia at UFC 112 in Abu Dabhi, where an underwhelming main event infuriated everyone - especially President Dana White.
However, Cormier revealed that he doesn't think the underwhelming fight will affect Adesanya's star power in the long run:
“I think that he can be as big a star as you have in the UFC,” Cormier said. “Some guys just have it. Like you said, it just radiates off of him. You just see it. From the moment he walks to the octagon, he officially marked his territory. You saw a young kid who had never done anything, become a champion in like a year. That doesn’t happen very often in the UFC and I think this was just one of those nights. Anderson Silva, it did not really affect his legacy having that fight in Saudi Arabia and I think that’s going to be the case with Izzy. He’s just going to move forward and his next fight is guaranteed to deliver because the guy he’s fighting, Paulo Costa, has never been in a fight like you saw Izzy have last week.”
Eventually, such fights are forgotten about. Adesanya is set to face Paulo Costa later this year when he recovers and it's expected to be an exciting one. After the response to the Romero fight, one would think that Adesanya has an extra chip on his shoulder.