Israel Adesanya believes his performance against Robert Whittaker "is going to change the tactic" of how other opponents will approach him
Israel Adesanya believes his opponents will change their fighting strategies after they witnessed his rematch against Robert Whittaker at UFC 271.
In a recent interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, 'The Last Stylebender' admitted that his rematch with Robert Whittaker strengthened the knowledge of Adesanya's future opponents. The UFC middleweight champion claimed that Whittaker tried to copy fighters like Kelvin Gastelum and Yan Blachowicz while developing his strategy for their rematch at UFC 271, which failed to work.
The Kiwi also stated that his future opponents will try to take insights from his rematch with Robert Whittaker and change their tactics in an attempt to defeat Adesanya.
"Yeah it did solidify what I already kind of knew, when it comes to the him [Robert Whittaker] on the ground. And their strength, a lot of these guys, their strength and, yeah I think it's going to change the tactic of how these guys approach me, because, I mean he tried to copy the first... Kelvin Gastelum game plan. And the next time he tried to copy the Yan game plan. I'm like bro, stop copying other people's homework. Just do your own homework," Israel Adesanya said.
Israel Adesanya is scheduled to take on Jared Cannonier at the main event of UFC 276 with the middleweight title on the line. The fight is scheduled for July 2, 2022, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, United States and will be the fighter's fifth title defense.
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Israel Adesanya discusses beef with Jared Cannonier ahead of UFC 276
Both Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier have been very respectful of each other since signing up for the title match, avoiding unnecessary trash talk until recently when the rivalry got personal.
The two got into an altercation with each other after Cannonier took to his Instagram to post a meme to his story that was directed towards the middleweight champ.
Addressing it in a recent video on his YouTube channel, 'The Last Stylebender' had this to say:
"He's made the same mistake that Rob made in the first fight. Rob made some stupid meme and posted and I was like, 'Why you talking sh*t? You never ever talk sh*t.' Now this guy [Cannonier] goes out and starts talking sh*t about me and I see these things because my brother or my dad or someone sent it to me and I was like, 'Huh' and insert the Michael Jordon meme. I took that personally."
You can check out Adesanya's discussion of his beef with Jared Cannonier below: