“Feel like this is Israel’s fight” – Dan Hooker is all in for Israel Adesanya against Alex Pereira but fears if THS happens
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Hooker and Adesanya at CKB
Israel Adesanya is all set to defend his UFC middleweight champions status for the third time this year. The Nigerian will be taking down a former rival, Alex Pereira at the main event of UFC 281. Ahead of the fight, Dan Hooker, teammate and training partner of Adesanya sat down with Submission Radio for a virtual interview. During the conversation, Hooker explained that Adesanya has the ability to control the outcome of the fight. Hooker mocked the fans who are questioning, Izzy’s abilities to defend and fight against Pereira.
“Um, I feel like it’s entirely up to Israel for this fight. He’s the one that gets to dictate this. I feel like he can beat Alex said if he just keeps it on the feet but that’s the funny thing about it like people don’t actually go back and spend the time.” said Hooker to Submission Radio.
According to Hooker, Izzy is in a different league and can do whatever he wants to do with Pereira inside the octagon. However, Hooker admits that the Brazilian has the approach and skillset to give a tough challenge to Izzy.
“I feel like Israel right now is on a whole another level but I feel like he wants to grapple him, he can grapple him too. I feel like this is Israel’s fight and the good thing about this fight or what makes it so exciting is that Alex is not going to stop coming forward. He’s gonna fight, kill or be killed, this is his one shot,” said Hooker. As Hooker said, fans are focusing a lot on the past two fights in which Izzy lost to Pereira. However, it’s been a long time since then and Izzy has improved a lot.
Israel Adesanya believes that he is a different fighter than before as he waits to fight Alex Pereira at UFC 281
Hooker and Adesanya come from the same MMA gym, City Kickboxing, and have been training together for a long time. Both fighters have a lot of footage of training together, on Izzy’s YouTube channel.
In a recent video on his channel, Izzy showed his subscribers the clips of him preparing for the clash at UFC 281. The ‘Last Stylebender’ is confident ahead of the fight and wants to beat Pereira at any cost.
He said: “I can see what I did wrong. So, it’s not gonna be like last time. This is a different fighter you are facing now and now I’ve become another fighter. I’ve rebirthing myself. I wanna have fun, that’s the goal. Beating him, that’s what matters. The belt, fuck the belt.
Stylistically, it is going to be an amazing fight for the fans as both are elite-level strikers. Coming from a kickboxing background, both will be well aware of each other’s moves. However, the difference in experience will definitely play a huge role in determining the winner of the bout.
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)